What comics did any of you buy this week? (Mine are in alpha order since I’m an anal retentive)
Avengers Finale – And with this (and the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes mini) I am done with the Avengers. Thanks Bendis, you suck!
Bloodhound #5 – Grumble, grumble, lousy crossover with Firestorm #7 (a book I’m considering dropping anyway) grumble, gripe. This book is getting some good reviews, so there could be some good that comes from it.
Fables #31 – Longtime Willingham fan and this book has yet to disappoint. Should be interesting to see if Snow White & Bigby Wolf are around much after this storyline.
Firestorm #7 – I went into this book with an open mind, but after the lousy way Ronnie Raymond was disposed of (which is more Identity Crisis' fault than Dan Jolley's), I’m considering dropping the title. Interviews hint that we might not have seen the last of Ronnie, so who knows? I’m intrigued with the new kid, but even for super-hero fiction, things seem a little implausible at the moment (for me anyway).
G.I. Joe #36 – First issue of a new story arc, and I usually wait and read story arcs all at once. I’ve enjoyed this book immensely, but found the Reloaded book horrendous. Give me the "crowded" cast and old continuity over the Ultimate version any day.
Green Arrow #44 – I had left this book last year, but picked up the last issue for the hype surrounding Mia’s revelation. I had to pick up this one for the fallout.
Identity Crisis #6 – Love the artwork, intrigued by the story and the mystery, saving final opinion until #7 and everything is laid bare.
JSA#67 – Geoff Johns rules all. Baaaaa . . .
Marvel Team-Up #1 – . . . and Robert Kirkman is in his rearview mirror. It's Spidey with Wolverine! It has Scott Kollins art! Buy it!! I want to see what corners of the Marvel U Kirkman will explore once he gets the obligatory marquee team-up out of the way.
New Thunderbolts – If Busiek and Nicienza weren’t involved, I wouldn’t go anywhere near this book after Marvel threw fans of the original title under the bus with that “Fight Club” approach of the last few issues of the original. I worship at Busiek’s feet, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the last book got when Fabes took it over. Together, they should be unstoppable, and with Tom Grummet artwork? They got my 3 bones.
Nightwing #99 – I’ve picked this title up off an on for the last couple of years, and was intrigued about some of the Identity Crisis rumours. I’m really excited for the Year One storyline that begins in a couple of months.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead – I’m a sucker for encyclopedic stuff like this.
Spectactular Spider-Man #21 – Paul Jenkins really writes a great Spidey. Too bad he’s leaving and they’re canceling the book when he does. Super hero poker night looks like a real hoot here.
Superman: Secret Identity TPB – Should have bought the originals, but this just title just screamed at me to wait for the trade since it would look much nicer on my bookshelf than individually bagged in one of my many, many, many boxes.
Walking Dead #12 – Even with Identity Crisis coming out this week, *this* was the first book I read today. Surprising ending to the second story arc. Anyone who loves zombie flicks should really be reading this book. Robert Kirkman is hot for a reason.
Book I Put Back: Aquaman #23 – Forgot to take it off my pull list, but then DC forgot to tell me they were taking Will Pfifer off the book, so there ya go.
"You have the right to suffer. You have the right to feel pain. If you wish to have an attorney present, I'll hurt him too!" - The Big Bossman
You know, I always though the supervillain fight club Thunderbolts wasn't a bad book. You know, except for the part where it makes no sense to be the Thunderbolts book, as we had just wrapped up a major story line and were about to begin a huge, earth-shaking new chapter for the team. But I actually bought all of supervillain fight club, and thought it would have made a pretty decent limited series as its own title.
The funniest thing about the new Tbolts is that they're doing the "simultaneous" old book numbering that they've been doing for all the rebooted Silver Age books.
What I bought yesterday (more coming later)
Identity Crisis & JSA Avengers Marvel Book/Dead - I too am a sucker for Who's WHo books TBolts Fables -- IS that Vorpal Sword a +1?
Huge week of cool stuff for me...and a day off today to read them!
Identity Crisis #6 - gave my thoughts in the other thread. Love it, waiting for the proverbial fodder to hit the fan.
Green Arrow #44 - Big thing is that Mia, Ollie's young charge, is HIV-positive from her past as a prostitute / drug addict. A bit "preachy" with background on the virus and treatment history, and a disappointment since the larger storyline with new villain Brick has been thrown aside, but still extremely interesting and filled with real emotion and charicterization.
GI Joe #36 - I love this title. Cobra Commander is being held by the Joes, Hawk is paralyzed / retired, and Destro is reforming Cobra into a real non-cartoonish terrorist threat while the Joes scatter without a leader. Plus Serpentor's clone is being held by shadow government ops, raising new plot twists to boot!
Avengers Finale - much better conclusion than Disassembled, filled with real emotion. The toast to fallen comrades at the end was touching and a good closer. I'm still a bit perplexed by Bendis's portrayal of some of these characters, though; some of the responses (like Tony's speech or Warbird's rant) were kinda flippant and made them totally unlikeable.
Marvel Team-Up #1 - Great art from Scott Kolins, and a fun story from Robert Kirkman. The opening panel with a webbed-up Wolverine was the sight of the week.
Iron Man #1 - Hated the retconning of Tony Stark's injury to Afghanistan, loved the computerized art and Ellis's setting up of the plot going forward. This probably would have made more sense as the proposed "Ultimate Iron Man" series, but it's still worth it if it gets Shellhead back in the spotlight.
New Thunderbirds #1 - Awesome cover, great concept. I'm really looking forward to how the dynamics for this group of reformed villains play out.
Also read Transformers #9 (best issue of a disappointing series so far), Spectacular Spider-Man #21 (super-heroes + poker = FUN), MK Spider-Man #8 (dark and brutal in a good way), and Bullseye: Greatest Hits #3 (solid conflict between Bullseye and the Punisher in the 1980s, but nothing's happened in this series so far).
"Remember, it's not a lie if *you* believe it." - George Costanza
Originally posted by Pizza PastaGI Joe #36 - I love this title. Cobra Commander is being held by the Joes, Hawk is paralyzed / retired, and Destro is reforming Cobra into a real non-cartoonish terrorist threat while the Joes scatter without a leader. Plus Serpentor's clone is being held by shadow government ops, raising new plot twists to boot!
Dammit. I gave up on this title about 10 months ago, after it seemed the market was flooded with too much Joe/Transformers crap for me to keep up, and now it looks like I have to go back to it.
Originally posted by odessastepsFables -- IS that Vorpal Sword a +1?
More like +infinity. It's the legendary sword of Jabberwock. Once it cuts you, you bleed out. (Snow threatened to use it once upon a time.)
I got: Avengers: Finale - Better than Bendis's whole disassembled storyline, IMO.
Iron Man #1 - You could tell that Marvel really wants Johnny Depp to play Tony Stark, as they essentially mimicked his looks for Tony's.
Spectacular Spider-Man #20 - Hilarious issue with a superhero poker game.
I also got Fables #31 & IC #6
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Originally posted by Pizza PastaMarvel Team-Up #1 - Great art from Scott Kolins, and a fun story from Robert Kirkman. The opening panel with a webbed-up Wolverine was the sight of the week.
Can someone please explain Why everyone seems to love Scott Kolins' art? It's just line art, there's no use of blacks, and whatever dimensionality there is in the art comes from the colorist.
Iron Man #1 - Hated the retconning of Tony Stark's injury to Afghanistan, loved the computerized art and Ellis's setting up of the plot going forward.
What didn't make sense to me was Tony's line about having to wait years for medical science to be able to remove the shrapnel from around his heart. It made sense in the '60s, but in the newly retconned "this happened in the '90s" origin it doesn't make sense anymore. In the time it took him to build the chest-plate he could have been taken to a hospital and had the shrapnel removed.
It's the same reason that when the movie War-Games gets remade it won't be nearly as plausible as it was in the days of people dialing into BBSes looking for people to play simple text based games with.
As far as the art is concerned, there were too many "look at what I can do with Poser" shots in the book.
"Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent." -Boies Penrose
Roy - GI Joe (the main title) is still really good because it maintains continuity with the original Marvel title and has an increased attention to "real-world" military style action. There has been a deluge of other mediocre stuff out there related to 80s icons - two GI Joe / Transformers crossovers, Voltron, and countless Transformers titles and mini-series. Based on loyalty I still purchase a lot of them, but really if you have to get one cartoon title GI Joe is still it. Plus they've even toned down the "All Snake-Eyes, All the Time" aspect to focus on other characters and plot threads.
Zundian - make no mistake about it, I HATED Kolins's work last year on Avengers, and that was the first place I was exposed to his work. He even got the stripe pattern on Captain America's shield wrong, a huge no-no for this fan. However, in the past two weeks alone he's turned out two beautiful titles in MTU #1 and Avengers: Earth's Mighties Heroes #1, so I guess I am a convert now.
The comment about removing the shrapnel was dead-on, too...how can they not have had the science to perform that surgery in the 90s (or even 80s)? And, by changing Stark's origin, when did they then rescue Cap from the water?
"Remember, it's not a lie if *you* believe it." - George Costanza
Well yes, but *why* do you like it? Look at the actual linework -- there's no variation in the lineweight, no spotting of blacks, the only thing there is lots of detail, though most of *that* is just implied, to be filled in later by the colorist. I've wanted to read Geoff John's stuff on the Flash, but could never get past the art.
As for Cap's shield it's fluctuated from two stripes to five over the years before finally settling on three in the mid-eighties. Back in the fifties, some artists didn't even bother to draw in the stripes, and left it up to the colorist to figure it out. The only hard and fast rule I know about Cap's look is that the stripe directly under the star on his shirt is to be colored red, with the others alternating outward from that.
"Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent." -Boies Penrose
Originally posted by ZundianWell yes, but *why* do you like it?
I think that what it boils down to is that it's so much different from a lot of the "dark" and "gritty" artists today (such as Maleev or Gaydos). Kolins's line-work lends itself well to lots of bright colors and hearkens back to my more youthful collecting days. So maybe that's it. Do I want him on Daredevil? No way; but for some fluff like Team-Up or a story set in the Silver Age like Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it works. It's "cartoony."
For the record, I believe Cap's shield should always be blue circle with white star in the middle, red stripe, white stripe, red stripe. But I'm a stickler for stuff like ensuring the American flag hangs with the stars in the upper-left corner no matter the orientation so I tend to notice more than most...
"Remember, it's not a lie if *you* believe it." - George Costanza
I like Kolins' art work, but don't think it's a good choice on a "mainstream" superhero title. I didn't think it worked on Flash, but I thought it really worked on the Thing mini that Johns and Kolins did.
I used to love watching the Hitchens brothers debate on the Sunday morning CSPAN show back in the 90s. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/christopher-hitchens/graydon-201112