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Comics

Bear With Mange or Walter Langowski?

Link

You decide.


By min | October 31, 2007, 12:31 PM | Comics & Ummm... Other? | Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

She-Hulk #22 - Despite beating us over the head with a few puns, this was pretty good. Good enough to keep trying for a few more issues, anyway.

Wraith #4 - It seems that people who are not as invested in Marvel continuity like this series/character a lot more than i do. I think in part it might be because it doesn't require as much backstory knowledge as other books might. So i wonder how they will feel about a resolution that hinges pretty heavily on knowing who the Supreme Intelligence is. I also find the Clint Eastwood ("homage") ending a bit much, but overall this was OK.

Daredevil #101 - Brubaker writes a really good Daredevil. I'm liking this story alot. And i love the use of the Hood. I'd like to see the Squadron of Evil thing continue to spill into other titles without actually being a formal crossover the way Stern's Masters of Evil plot did.


By fnord12 | October 28, 2007, 1:06 PM | Comics | Comments (6)| Link



Update on the Ice Haven thing

Here's an update on the issue where a teacher assigned a Daniel Clowes (the guy who wrote Ghost World) comic to a student and it caused a controversy. Short version: he lost his job even though he did nothing wrong.


By fnord12 | October 26, 2007, 4:14 PM | Comics & Liberal Outrage | Link



Marvel Sales

September


By fnord12 | October 26, 2007, 2:08 PM | Comics | Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Mighty Avengers #5 - I enjoyed Ares quite a bit ("I'm the God of War!!"). I enjoyed it all quite a bit. People say Bendis can't write different dialogue for different people but that's clearly not true. People say Bendis can't write fight scenes but that's clearly not true. Why am i basing my enjoyment of a comic on what people say? Stop. It's good. I just wish it would come out on time.

Captain America #31 - The following is not a criticism of this particular comic, which was excellent, but someone needs to sit down and say "These are the circumstances under which Captain America and Bucky got 'killed'/frozen during World War II. Were they in costume or not? Were they knocked out and tied to the drone plane or did they drive up to the plane as it was launching in a motorcycle? Were they at an American airforce base or at Zemo's castle? Was Zemo trying to steal the plane or was he about to launch it against the Allies? I've read about four different versions of this so far. It seems like Roy Thomas actually took a crack at consolidating some of the various versions in one of his Avengers issues involving time travel, but then subsequent writers seem to have messed it up again. There's only one explanation: Marvel's writers suck, Marvel's editor's suck, and the Marvel Universe is broken. Or it's a bunch of nitpicky details that no one should really be too concerned about.


By fnord12 | October 22, 2007, 7:31 AM | Comics | Comments (4)| Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 - Other than the fact that this basic story has been done before (Rick Jones/Marlo) and the fact that there was a lot of filler, and the fact that i don't like where this is probably going, i didn't see anything actually wrong with this issue. I thought Dr. Strange was written well, and i liked the tie-in reference with a previous Strange appearance in JMS's Spider-Man. The art is really good (except i don't like Peter's face). But hey, did we pay the extra $1 for the partial reprint of an issue of Tom Defalco's Amazing Spider-Man?

Spider-Man/Red Sonja #3 - This definitely is better now that the action has picked up. You can't go wrong with Kulan Venom.

Fantastic Four #550 - I finally figured out why i don't really enjoy the FF anymore: Reed Richards isn't enough of a dick. Reed should be written as the quintessential 1960s super-scientist. Arrogant, dismissive, distracted, smoking a pipe. A real father-knows-best sort of character. I'd also like to see the Thing be written less as a cute, loveable guy and more of a somewhat unstable monster, but i know we're too far gone to go back to that. Reed, however, should still be a jackass. None of this has anything to do with this issue specifically, however. McDuffie throws a lot of great ideas at us and even sort of thematically ties up his run by bringing Gravity back.

Nova #7 - Mavel should do more events with related mini-serieses(eses)focusing on minor characters. I say this because i'm enjoying Nova as part of Annihilation Conquest, but i still don't want to read an ongoing Nova series after Conquest is over.

Punisher War Journal #12 - Another single issue story which was just fine. I have to admit something: you know how there were two sets of narrative captions, one for the Punisher and one for the stupid bug thing? I didn't read the bug thing's captions. Also, the venom suit was a cool one-time idea, but i'm uncomfortable with the possibility now that these suits can just be built any time now.

Runaways #28 - This was good, although i'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the number of new characters and factions that we're dealing with here. Maybe if it came out more often i'd have the story fresh in my head from one month to the next. Also the quality of the art seemed to vary a lot from page to page. Some pages looked really good, but sometimes characters looked really wooden and expressionless. I double-checked but there was only one artist, so i'm not sure what's going on.

New Avengers #35 - Hmmm. Kulan Venom. Punivenom. And now Wolvervenom. Except... Wolvervenom was not actually in this issue, was he? The cover lied to us. What we did get was still good, though. A "real world" look at what a Masters of Evil might be, and it also serves to explain where all the bad guys went during Civil War. I wish Yu's art was better so i could clearly pick out who all the villains are*. Also, it's definitely hard to reconcile the Hood who appeared in Beyond with the one who beats up Tigra this issue. Easy answer: it's a Skrull! More probable answer: He's a guy that knows how to get along with people but that doesn't mean he's not an amoral thug.

*Best i can do:

  • Jigsaw
  • Some guy in crusader armor
  • Nitro
  • Griffin
  • The guy in the blue and green costume with the hood and mustache. I feel like i should know him.
  • Tigershark?
  • The girl in the blue and purple outfit wearing a black jacket over the costume.
  • Chemistro
  • Mr. Hyde?
  • Mr. Fear?
  • Purple Man?
  • Grey Gargoyle?
  • Mandrill
  • The U-foes
  • The Wrecking Crew (back from Canada already? Or haven't left yet.)
  • Armadillo (back from the MODOK's 11 story already...?). (And how did a guy that appeared in like 2 issues of Gruenwald's Cap and then reformed wind up getting used in so many places recently?)
  • Controller
  • Is that the Boomerang in the red and white costume behind the Purple Man? That's not his classic costume but i think he did have a costume like that.
  • Constrictor
  • Fixer
  • Mentallo
  • Is that Sunder from the Morlocks? No, he's got a skull-white face.
  • Who is the guy that looks like the Red Skull? Buddies with the Sunder-looking guy. I'm betting they're from Gruenwald's Cap.
  • The Answer? Really?
  • Blackout (90s Ghost Rider Blackout, not Marv Wolfman's Blackout)
  • Guy in the turquoise body armor and brown hooded trenchcoat
  • Gimpy-guy
  • Guy in the white and purple costume with the horns.
  • Wizard
  • Madam Masque

Actually, it seems my problem with identifying the villains has less to do with Yu's art and more to do with my own lack of familiarity with some of these minor characters.

Overall, happy to get seven good comics in a week. Keep 'em comin'.


By fnord12 | October 15, 2007, 7:23 AM | Comics | Link



You just don't see ads like these anymore


By fnord12 | October 12, 2007, 2:59 PM | Comics & Ummm... Other? | Link



Mine was better

OK, not really. Hopefully i'll remember to post the picture of the helmet min made for me when i get home, but here's Tom Brevoort as Galactus.

Update:




By fnord12 | October 11, 2007, 9:16 AM | Comics | Comments (2)| Link



What is it with this Steve Gerber?

I'm not up to the 70s yet in my Marvel Comics reading project, but my opinion of Steve Gerber from what scattered issues i have read is that he's... ok. And i certainly couldn't make my way through the Essential Howard the Duck the first time around although i do plan to try it again when i get to that point. But whenever one of the characters he created while working for Marvel is used, certain people... react. The range of emotion goes from outrage to nervous apprehension. And i'm not sure i get it. The question of individual creator rights in a shared universe setting is a tricky one that i don't want to get into right now, but what i really want to know is why is using characters created by Gerber an extra-sensitive area, as opposed to, say, using a character created by Marv Wolfman?

P.S. - i like the new look for Howard.


By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 3:28 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

MODOK's 11 #4 - Only one book for me this week but it was a good one. And that's all i have to say about that.


By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 2:46 PM | Comics | Link



Thor vs. Hippies

Tonight's images are all from Thor #154 (Jul 68)


By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 8:04 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link



The Awesomeness of Jack Kirby


By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 8:02 PM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link



What a rip-off

Where's my S P E C I A L privileges and family ties? I want SUPER KUNG-FU!


By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 7:58 PM | Comics & My stupid life & Ummm... Other? | Comments (1)| Link



Here, here


By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 3:08 PM | Comics | Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Starlord #3 - Still waiting for the Groot/Rocket Raccoon ongoing to be announced. I also might be in love with Mantis.

Iron Man #22 - Good twist, i guess. But how come Iron Man doesn't dance any more?

Iron Fist #9 - While this was all very good, the 2 panels with Luke, Misty, and Colleen were the best. And i'm disappointed that E. Honda didn't use his thousand hand slap.

Iron Fist annual #1 - I was hoping for backstories on all the people Iron Fist will be facing in the tournament since that's sort of what #9 implied it would be, but backstories on the previous Iron Fist isn't bad either. I felt like the writing wasn't quite as good on this, and i see that Fraction is listed above Brubaker here as opposed to vice versa in the regular series, but it could also have been the different artist. I'm also interested in the idea that Hydra was around prior to World War II. We all know that Baron Strucker formed Hydra at the end of World War II but he did so by taking over a previous secret society, so we can consider this version of Hydra part of that. The Hydra ties to K'un-Lun are intriguing, in any event.


By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 7:45 AM | Comics | Link



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