"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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« Comics: April 2007 | Main | Comics: June 2007 » ComicsThe five best beards in comic books Here. By fnord12 | May 30, 2007, 2:22 PM | Comics | Link Ant-Man - kind of like Heroes for Hire bringing in Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, bringing in Damage Control is a signal to me that this series is going to be more of the "goofy/funny" than "serious-disturbing/funny" and that's disappointing. I like the idea of a series about a total bastard who is not a super hero but pretends to be one in order to get chicks and loot, but i don't like goofy-bad comics like howard the duck or she-hulk. This issue was fine but i'm wondering if there's really anywhere to go from here. FF - i've read a few reactions to this online and i can see where people feel like suddenly the Black Panther just pulled a bunch of gadgets out of nowhere in order to settle the conflict, and it did feel like everything resolved a little too neatly but A) Reed Richards constantly pulls wacky devices out of his butt to defeat the bad guys and B) in this case the devices in question are from the much-loved Christopher Priest Black Panther run. Regardless of that, this has been a great run with good dialogue and characterization. Captain America - great stuff. The very last line of Bucky's inner monologue threw me for a loop. Very funny (serious-disturbing funny). Overall, it was a great set of reactions to Cap's death, confirming for me that i didn't need Jeph Loeb's probably awful Fallen Son mini. I loved the squabble between Red Skull and Dr. Faustus. When Arnim Zola is acting as a mediator, you know you're dealing with some unstable people. Zola's description of Doom's technology ("A lot of his science isn't exactly... science") was cool, too. My only (minor) complaint is that Epting's usually awesome art fell apart when showing the remnants of the resistance fighters - suddenly people's faces were melting. Secret Wars count - i couldn't keep track due to the crowd scenes but i didn't get anywhere near eight. By fnord12 | May 29, 2007, 2:30 PM | Comics | Comments (2)| Link With Marvel now making their own movies, they shouldn't have to worry about different production companies owning the rights to various characters when they're ready to do the mother of all cross-overs. Assuming Marvel doesn't go broke and lose the rights to all their characters if the movies don't do well. Now they just need the rights back for their major characters like Spidey, the FF, and the X-Men. How does that work. Do the rights to the characters expire over a period of time, or are they licensed to do a specific number of movies, or what? By fnord12 | May 24, 2007, 10:51 AM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link Eventually I was seeing my local Verizon repair guy, who was repeatedly being summoned to my home to restore service, more often than my best friend. So I was naturally suspicious when I caught an unfamiliar man, no uniform or badge, fiddling with the posts in my building's phone box. "Who are you and what are you doing?" I demanded. The dude knocked me down and bolted out a door into an alley. Giving chase, I watched him drive off an unmarked white van with U.S. government plates. By fnord12 | May 23, 2007, 11:42 AM | Comics & Liberal Outrage | Link Priapus, the god of the well-endowed. (Scroll down to 'Priapus in popular culture' and you'll see how i came to know about him). By fnord12 | May 15, 2007, 1:54 PM | Comics
& Ummm... Other? | Comments (2)| Link Wanyas sent me this link a while ago but i'm just getting around to posting some things in my email. Although this was made in 1975, i had this as a kid. Even though it's essentially card board cut-outs, it was very cool and it probably had a lot to do with the fact that i love the marvel comics so much. At the time i played with these, i had no idea who most of these characters were, so as i read comics they probably clicked with early memories in my brain and stuck. (Click for bigger image.) By fnord12 | May 14, 2007, 10:57 AM | Comics
& My stupid life | Link Punisher - this is really slow and boring. I know they tried to establish earlier that the Punisher has some kind of Cap worship thing going on, but this is taking it way too far. Also, even though i agree with the politcs, the full page lecture on immigration was a bit much for me. And i find this story continues for two more issues? Dropping is imminent Iron Fist - When i think back on what happened in this issue, it was "Iron Fist and Iron Fist Senior crawl out of the sewer and go back to the Rand Corp Headquarters, where they find more bad guys." I remember enjoying it at the time though so it must have been some damn good sewer crawling. Also i'm glad to see Luke, Colleen, and Misty show up. Amazing Spider-Man - Good but like a lot of current comics it moves a little too slowly and i'm not really feeling the immediacy of Parker's rage at this point. The chronologist in me is trying to figure out where this fits in the Kingpin's history since he's been forced out of the country in Daredevil and already come back into the country in Runaways. I'm pretty sure this takes place immediately after Civil War, though. That works best for me as i'd like this storyline resolved before the New Avengers stories start. Avengers - Well, the Bendis doubters were essentially right. Everyone was trying to figure out who the new Ronin was based on the few lines of dialogue in his debut appearance. The clues were that he directed his comments to Luke Cage, talked with a bit of a street slang, and didn't seem to have be familiar with working with the Avengers. Adding all that together and considering the fact that he uses a sword and that the original purpose of the New Avengers team was to get all the recognizable fan-favorite characters on one team, i had my money on Blade (thinking that the slang and the fact that he was only talking to Luke was a white writer's way of indicating that the character was black). Considering that it ended up being Hawkeye, who re-joined the team despite Cage's protest, those lines of dialogue ended up being very throwaway. Still, i enjoyed this issue despite the very sketchy art which i really am getting used to. By fnord12 | May 14, 2007, 10:22 AM | Comics | Link Ego the Living Planet hitting on the Earth. From the Marvel Adventures line. Brilliant. By fnord12 | May 11, 2007, 9:52 AM | Comics | Comments (3)| Link So, i don't really know how it started, but then again, i never do. Bits of the Hulk's personality and memories were being stripped from him and manifesting physically. All the physical manifestations looked like the Hulk, but they acted slightly differently. One was infantile. One was super stupid. Things like that. Nothing really flushed out. I think one was super-deformed. Gigantic head, regular-sized body. The Hulk was completely unaware of this. These people from another dimension had been gathering and tending to the various Hulk-bits. They wanted to bring them back to the Hulk and somehow re-merge his bits to the whole. Hulk, ofc, had no idea what had been happening and when these people approached him, he assumed they were attacking him. He attacked back. Typical. Miraculously, none of them were seriously hurt by the Hulk's rampage. As the fight continued, the others managed to herd the Hulk-bits to the scene and Hulk finally understood he was not being attacked but helped. On a side note, at one point, She-Hulk arrives and the infantile Hulk recognizes her immediately and is overjoyed. She isn't sure exactly what's going on so she tries to get away from him. She disguises herself in a lab coat and glasses and sets herself up at a desk in a lab. As if this would work. Ah well. By min | May 8, 2007, 2:44 PM | Comics
& My Dreams | Link In recent issues of Iron Man, when Dum Dum Dugan compares Tony Stark's job as Director of SHIELD to the way Nick Fury handled things even though Maria Hill had been the director of SHIELD in recent years... A. It's because Marvel can't keep their continuity straight By fnord12 | May 7, 2007, 7:35 PM | Comics | Link Iron Man #17 - Interesting plot and happy to see something of a redefinition of the Mandarin. I like how he's examined himself and realized that he's acted too much out of rage in the past and now he's going to correct that. This should really re-establish him as a top villain. The genetic terrorist manipulation and the struggles Tony is having running SHIELD is also good. This book has definitely gotten better. Astonishing X-Men #21 - While this is an "any heroes will do" generic type of story, it's being executed well and i'm enjoying it. After this wraps up and Whedon leaves, i'm going to be blind to the X-Men section of the marvel universe again. Maybe i'll have to get that big event. Runaways #26 - Several laugh out loud moments ("Why aren't you awesomed by me??") and great character moments as well (oh, the story's ok too). As long as Joss Whedon doesn't kill anyone, this should continue to be one of my favorites, even if the next issue is a time travel story. Omega Flight #2 - Man, they'll slap an "Initiative" label on anything. This is good. I'd have expected the Wrecking Crew to actually kill Sasquatch, but dragging him around like a dog is pretty sadistic so it works even if the point from a plot perspective is to keep him alive and rescuable. It's still not paced right for a miniseries but i'm using my reality-manipulation powers to ensure that this becomes an ongoing so that'll be fine. The shock ending was ruined a bit by the preview/filler issue that came out at the end of civil war. Nonetheless, good. Hulk #106 - this was great. I love the Richards/Cho 'chess' game. Pak said in an interview that if he could have done anything differently about Planet Hulk, it would have been to have sub-plots running through the series dealing with Hulk's supporting cast back on Earth. I wish he had done that because he's apparently a very good writer. I just haven't gotten the Planet Hulk stuff because i'm not all that interested in the Hulk-as-gladiator thing. World War Hulk: World Breaker #1 - This was pretty pointless, and not nearly as well written as the main Hulk issue so it actually had negative value. And how is it a prologue if it takes place after #106? It's nice to have the first appearance of Amadeus Cho reprinted in the back although it turns out his bond with the Hulk isn't based on very much. The best thing in here was the Mini Marvels. Buti felt like they ran with the Black Bolt hand signal bit a little too long. God, i just hate everything, don't i? By fnord12 | May 7, 2007, 8:11 AM | Comics | Link By fnord12 | May 3, 2007, 12:06 PM | Comics | Link  Some people (see comments in the Marvel Sales thread) just don't like Rob Liefeld. But is it really an absolute, or is it a question of taste? What it comes down to is: some people like a grotesquely deformed Captain America, and some don't. Update: Not work safe. Although, is it really appropriate to be reading SuperMegaMonkey at work in the first place? By fnord12 | May 1, 2007, 4:38 PM | Comics | Comments (3)| Link |
