"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
|
Home
|
« Comics: May 2013 | Main | Comics: July 2013 » ComicsIce Castles On our recent adventure out west, the place we stayed at had a high tech device called a VCR, and included a fine library of VHS movies to watch on it. Sure, we watched Rob Schneider's The Animal, but first we made sure to watch Ice Castles, which was advertised to us as "the blind ice skater movie". Turns out she doesn't go blind until nearly the end of the film, so it was kind of a rip off. But someone looked up the people appearing in the movie and discovered it included teen heartthrob Robby Benson. Aaaaaand no one knew who that was. But i declared that i probably had an ad in a comic featuring a poster of him. And sure enough: Here's Robby: But it turns out i can do one better: By fnord12 | June 30, 2013, 3:34 PM | Comics
& Movies
& My stupid life | Link May. By fnord12 | June 26, 2013, 7:15 AM | Comics | Link By fnord12 | June 20, 2013, 9:13 AM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link Uncanny X-Force #6 - The pace of this book could be described as meandering, and i'm definitely missing Garney's art, but i'm still enjoying this. I liked that there was a resolution to the Psylocke/Spiral conflict, with an acknowledgement that Spiral was a victim of Mojo's, too. I'm also still hopeful that the Demon Bear story goes somewhere cool; i like it so far. And i'm actually liking Dexter Soy's art on the psychic plane. One thing that didn't work at all was the weird interspersal of scenes. You have Psylocke fighting Spiral mixed with scenes of her mentally talking with Wolverine, which might make you think they were happening simultaneously but then we're introduced to another scene where Psylocke is sitting around in a room with the other X-Force guys, and that's when the psychic meeting was really happening. Kinda weird choice. I also am back to not liking Humphries depiction of Puck. That "How much does it hurt where Logan chewed you out..." is totally out of character as far as i'm concerned. X-Factor #257 - I was kinda hoping that we'd get away from the demon stuff after the end of the last arc. If this issue were actually focused on changing Madrox back from being a demon i would have been a little cooler with it (i'd have been even happier if it just magically happened between last issue and this one, though; say it's because the Hell Lords have all left Earth). But this was just a story about Madrox as a demon and i'm not really interested. Wolverine #4 - So, umm, Wolverine has super-speed now? Ok, it's not Quicksilver super-speed, and i get how it's a logical use of his powers and i like that it's Victoria Frankenstein telling him how to do it, but really... Wolverine doesn't need to get any more powerful. This is the kind of thing you have to be really careful about introducing because pretty soon some other writer really is going to have Wolverine racing Quicksilver. I see that the next arc is called "Killable" though, and for some strange reason i've got the idea in my head that it means we're going to find a way to reduce the power of Wolverine's regeneration. But since i'm just making that up, let me get back to this issue. Ummm, so that was a really ambiguous ending, huh? Like, clearly it's not over despite the title page saying part 4 of 4. And i didn't understand Marcus H. Harold's snippet from 2100 at all. Nice art, of course, and Cornell's individual scenes work ok - most of this story was standard super-hero stuff with good dialogue - but there's some bits in here that i didn't like or don't seem to be working well. Iron Man #11 - Speaking of things you want to be careful about introducing, i see that we're fully committing to this "secret origin" now. Last issue we had the option of disbelieving it because it was just stuff we saw on a video played by an untrustworthy narrator. But this issue has a straight cut back to the past with no narrator, and that's where they reveal that Tony Stark was tampered with in the womb to make him super-smart. And genetically inclined to be a warmonger. Hey, i guess Stark was really doing a great job fighting against biological instinct when he got out of the arms business for, like, several decades worth of comics, right? And the idea that Stark is the only super-genius that builds weapons is ridiculous; the people that the Recorder discounts (Dr. Doom? AIM?) are discounted way too easily and anyone doing a little digging could find plenty more. Even the Black Panther comes to mind. It's ironic; qualitywise this book became great (Land replaced with Eaglesham) at the same time it became pretty alarming from a continuity-destroying perspective. It's like someone is deliberately fucking with me! Thunderbolts #10 - Art is sometimes wonky - especially the Red Hulk - but i'm still enjoying this and sad that Way is leaving. Avenging Spider-Man #22 - Enjoying this quite a bit. Nice to see Octo-Spidey's thoughts on the Punisher as well as his conflicting thoughts on Mysterio. Cool use of the Spider-Men storyline (by acknowledging that it happened, it feels more solidly in continuity instead of just a Marvel vs. DC type of crossover). Surprised to see Octo-Spidey include the fake Mysterio in his "Sinister Six"; looking forward to see that subplot come to fruition. Red She-Hulk #66 - Jeff Parker i love you but why can't you stay away from these alternate timelines? I did ask for some sort of reconciliation of the Red She-Hulk with the Betty Ross of old so i guess this is an attempt to accomplish that? I don't think it worked well though. I'm still not sure how you get there from here; we don't see the scenes that would cause an uninhibited Betty to turn around and start macking on Thor. There also seemed to be a scripting problem, possibly related to coloring confusion? There's a panel where the Man-Thing is talking to the Red She-Hulk and referring to the "red lass" as if it were a third party. And then Machine Man was staring at the Red She-Hulk but addressing Jen Walters. I mean, maybe they were both talking to Green She-Hulk off panel, but that would be a weird art choice. And i thought the Man-Thing's voice was supposed to have a dialect most appropriate for the person hearing it, so why is Machine Man hearing a cajun dude as opposed to, like, a coldly emotional robot or something? Oh well. It's a lost cause anyway; book is cancelled. By fnord12 | June 19, 2013, 10:14 PM | Comics | Link An overdue article from the Beat that is really directed at itself and other comics news blogs. It's entitled Stop wondering where all the female creators are, and go find them! and was triggered by a comment made by Mairghread Scott, who is currently writing a Transformers title for IDW: More directly (from her post): To step away from the Beat's point that sites need to look beyond Marvel & DC (which is a good point in its own right), that fan vs. "advocate" discrepancy really hit me, and it's something i've noticed before. Sites like The Beat and Mary Sue, which have a (laudable) feminist focus, almost never talk about the actual comics, and when they do it's usually a reaction to a press release. Cheering the announcement of an all-female X-Men team. Lamenting the cancellation of yet another female written / female lead character title like Journey Into Mystery. But they never seem to actually talk about the books when they are ongoing. I remember when DeConnick's Captain Marvel series was announced, the Mary Sue was pretty excited. When i saw that i wondered if they'd regularly promote the book, and after we'd read a few issues and had mixed feeling about it i went and checked to see if they had reviewed it. Nothing. I just checked now and still nothing other than the occasional "DIY Carol Danvers Supersuit Sweater" type of thing. This is a book that has been at cancellation numbers since inception and could use an influx of readers from these heavily read sites, or, if applicable, prominent criticism that Marvel might see and react to on where it might be failing. I made fun of Tom Brevoort a while back but in one sense he's right: actual comic reviews are relegated to the bowels of CBR and the like. The sites that complain about lack of female representation (or anything else) ought to engage more with the comics. By fnord12 | June 19, 2013, 2:53 PM | Comics | Link Be back in a week! By fnord12 | June 6, 2013, 11:27 PM | Comics | Link Penny Arcade's comic and write-up today makes the new Marvel MMO game seem like some sort of surreal nightmare. By fnord12 | June 5, 2013, 7:17 PM | Comics
& Video Games | Link You'd think with all the backissues i buy, i'd have more examples of defaced comics, but the truth is most comic fans know better, so this is really rare. Ok, Nighthawk's not an iconic character. By fnord12 | June 5, 2013, 4:46 PM | Comics | Link The internet probably reached maximum saturation on Hostess ads long ago, but i can't really get enough of Ralph G. Fake. He destroys the bill of rights! And calls Spider-Man a "soft humanitarian" for complaining about it! But i've always wondered why Legal Eagle, the Monster Eagle, would be green? I guess it's because he's a Monster Eagle? But i suspect the colorist just said "i guess that's the Vulture". I've seen this ad more times than i can count and i always have to remind myself it's not the Vulture. But that's the colorist's fault. I do have to give the colorist credit for this scene where the Eagle's feathers just melt away after he turns back into Ralph G. Fake, though. By fnord12 | June 5, 2013, 4:20 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link Was looking up how to spell Sienkiewicz and i found this. By fnord12 | June 4, 2013, 8:41 PM | Comics
& TeeVee | Link Uncanny X-Force #5 - Dexter Soy?! What are you doing here? But using him for the dreamscape sections works well enough. And this was good. I'm sure Storm deleting a portion of Bishop's memory will have some repercussions. And confirmation that we're dealing with the demon bear is cool, and i wouldn't even mind a better explanation for the demon bear, which is where it looks like this is going. I thought the Sienkiewicz inspired cover was a nice touch. Avenging Spider-Man #21 - From this issue it seems like OctoSpidey is collecting the Sinister Six villains because he feels responsible for them, but i'm still hoping it's to launch some sort of Sinister Six scheme. In any event, liking the writing from Octavius' perspective quite a bit. X-Men #1 - This was fantastic. Nice clear backstory (Hickman please take note), good characterization, nice scenes for everyone and fantastic art. Only hindrance is having just read a book with half these characters doing something else entirely, knowing Rogue is with the Uncanny Avengers, etc.. There's enough characters in the Marvel Universe that we shouldn't have to deal with so much overlap. Not this book's fault, of course, but it's still annoying. Indestructible Hulk #8 - This was also great in its own way. Good fun. I'd really like a more classic Hulk face - both here and Avenging Spider-Man and generally; i don't like the way he's been drawn lately. But this was a nice three-parter and i hope it's the start of seeing some more Walt Simonson at Marvel again. By fnord12 | June 4, 2013, 8:33 PM | Comics | Link
By fnord12 | June 4, 2013, 9:27 AM | Comics & TeeVee & Whoodwin | Comments (1)| Link |
