Topic: Funnybooks (Read 161458 times)

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #120 on:** May 04, 2008, 11:50:53 PM »

If all the other issues are anything like this one, then I... need to have a long, hard think about whether I can handle something like that every single month. It wasn't what I was expecting.

Thad · « **Reply #121 on:** May 05, 2008, 12:00:57 AM »

Well, "every single month" isn't really accurate. I think they've put out something like four issues in two years.

Thad · « **Reply #122 on:** May 05, 2008, 01:40:24 PM »

Local #11 is delightfully meta. The cover tends to give away the whole story, but it's still well-told, and this remains one of my favorite books of the past three years.

If you haven't picked it up up to this point, now's not a great time to start since it's going to end at #12 and you may as well wait for the trade. But I WOULD say everyone should pick up the trade when it comes out.

It's a great book. And not just because of my high school, though if you live in any of the 12 locales it's covered I'm sure it will be that much more rewarding for you.

Bal · « **Reply #123 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:22:53 AM »

Recommending House of Mystery, if you've got a strong stomach.

Büge · « **Reply #124 on:** May 08, 2008, 01:39:05 PM »

This has to be the most boring secret invasion I've ever read.

Thad · « **Reply #125 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:35:47 PM »

EW has first 5 pages of Final Crisis, featuring Dan Turpin, Orion, John Stewart, and the Question.

I continue to be cautiously optimistic.

Thad · « **Reply #126 on:** May 10, 2008, 12:31:10 AM »

Getting back to Gumby, now that I've read it: it wasn't done by the usual creative team, but yes, it WAS representative of the book. Gumby's always been pretty surreal, and in case you're not familiar with Bob Burden's work, he's the creator of Flaming Carrot, the definitive surreal superhero.

Personally, I love it; its Eisner is well-deserved and I'm looking forward to the next issue. Wish they'd put more out.

Moving on: still working my way through my FCBD stack; haven't been to the shop this week because it seems silly to buy new stuff when I still have a shitload from last week.

Just made it through The Death-Defying 'Devil vs. Claw, which is basically a primer for Project Superpowers. I quite liked it, though there's not much there; what I really like is the entire premise of Project Superpowers.

It's an Alex Ross book based around Golden Age superheroes who have fallen into the public domain. The titular character in this one, the 'Devil, is actually the original Golden Age Daredevil; presumably the name change is due to the fact that, while the character has fallen into the public domain, Marvel owns the trademark on the name "Daredevil".

Tangentially, while reading up on the original Daredevil, I found out about a similar Image project using public domain superheroes, titled Next Issue Project, which sounds pretty interesting in and of itself. Apparently the first issue came out in February and had a Mike Allred story; I think I might have to see about tracking it down.

I love the idea of doing something with public-domain superheroes just in and of itself; I have long believed that superheroes are, in many ways, figures of modern folklore and mythology, and it's very interesting to me to see different writers cut loose with them without the need to adhere to the editorial mandates of a DC or a Marvel.

Thad · « **Reply #127 on:** May 19, 2008, 11:12:18 PM »

Walking Dead #49:

Whether the last page and next issue's cover are the real deal or just another fakeout, it's plain at this point that Carl is going to be a much bigger character in the coming issues. He's got a lot of potential; in a book about how people react to a world gone to hell, there's a lot to be explored about how a child will react differently to the situation than an adult. He's already shown that he accepts the violent deaths of everyone around him as inevitable, and there's a lot to be done with a preteen who has arrived at that worldview. As we know, the title of the book refers to the humans and not the zombies; Carl may yet prove to be the greatest example of a character who is resigned to his fate before he ever gets to live his life.

Thunderbolts #120:

This is the one we've been waiting for: Norman puts on the mask, accompanied by some of the best sick internal monologue I've seen Ellis put out in ages, including references to impregnating blond girls and then breaking their necks. (Oddly, while the Goblin's been on several covers before, he's not on this one, the first issue he actually APPEARS in. But it looks like he's on next month's.)

The whole arc has made for an excellent psychological thriller. Mind control stories can easily be lame and boring, but Ellis does it wonderfully -- instead of turning the T-bolts into mindless automata, the antagonists simply nudge them, remove their inhibitions. Norman, Venom, and Swordsman are ALREADY mentally unstable; it doesn't take much to turn them into violent psychotics. (Radioactive Man's change is qualitatively different; his violent ranting seems very out-of-character.) At the end of the issue, we're left with only Songbird, Samson, and Penance unaffected -- we know the latter two were able to shake off the mind control, but what about Melissa? Yes, she's the natural leader of the team and probably the most together of the lot, but she's still a damn basket case. If she's not turned by next issue, I want an explanation beyond "because she's the hero".

The antagonists' plan, of course, is itself a massive plothole. Their claim that there's no way the Thunderbolts can wriggle out of the backlash of massacring their non-metahuman staff is absurd. They don't have to spin shit, they can just tell the truth: they were mind-controlled. The entire PREMISE of this series is that the public trusts Norman Osborn, and him as a good guy is more farfetched than "we all got mind controlled into killing a bunch of people."

There was actually a fun issue of Astro City: Local Heroes about a lawyer who defended a mobster in court by raising the reasonable doubt that he could have been mind-controlled or impersonated. In a world where things like that happen on a regular basis, the public would accept them as part of life.

Thad · « **Reply #128 on:** May 21, 2008, 12:00:34 AM »

Booster #9 still fails to live up to the fun of the first few issues, but it's okay, even for somebody who wasn't reading JLI in the 1980's. The end of the issue concludes act 2, and assuming a standard 6-issue arc, it'll be over in 2 months.

We're still where we've been for the past couple of months -- I'm hoping they don't re-kill Ted at the end of this, but that'd be the obvious ending.

Thad · « **Reply #129 on:** May 21, 2008, 10:59:33 AM »

Madman #8:

As has occurred many times in this series, not much happens, but it happens fucking beautifully.

It's another rehash of Frank's origins, this time focusing on the G-Men from Hell story, which I think leaves it reasonable to assume those elements will be coming back soon. (Which reminds me, I'm going to add the movie version of G-Men from Hell to my queue.)

Anyway. A perfectly good jumping-on point for new readers, and the art's gorgeous. For those who want to see something HAPPEN...well, you've had a lot of frustration already in this series, haven't you.

Thad · « **Reply #130 on:** May 29, 2008, 08:36:53 AM »

It has been stated before, but I hate the fucking X-Men.

There have been exceptions in the past decade. X-Statix was a personal favorite (until Editorial fucked with it and it went off the rails). And as I am a fan of Whedon and Cassaday, I have been picking up the occasional Astonishing trade.

So, since I've been picking up trades, and have only gotten as far as vol 3: Torn, I don't know what the fuck's happened since, and I'm also not going to use spoiler tags. Read the remainder of the post with that in mind.

The first two volumes, Gifted and Dangerous, were solid. Very pretty art, and Whedon's managed to make me actually like the cast. Even the utterly tiresome Cyclops/Wolverine dynamic works here. In short, it's Whedon doing what Whedon does: writing a dysfunctional family. The dialogue is witty and the characters are interesting; their flaws are charming instead of obnoxious.

Last week, I picked up Volume 3: Torn. And it reminded me of why I fucking hate the X-Men.

And really, it boils down to the fact that I hate Claremont.

Oh, to list the problems with this story.

For starters, I don't know who Cassandra Nova is, and I don't care. Oh look, another generic evil telepath who manages to singlehandedly shatter the X-Men.

And how the mind games work out? Bleah. The Scott-and-Jean angst is suitably creepy but has nothing else going for it. Wolverine regressing to his childhood as a Canadian aristocrat is pretty damn funny for the first two pages, but then somehow gets stretched out long past that and is resolved through a fucking Simpsons gag.

As for Wolverine? I find him, consistently, the most overrated character in comics; part of what Whedon's managed to do that so amazed me in the first two volumes is make me like him. Mainly by toning down the constant angst and turning him into Jayne.

But he's done that at the expense of Beast. Beast is the new Wolverine. Beast is the one who spends all his time whining about how he can't control his inner rage and he's turning into an animal and blah-de-fucking-boo-hoo.

At least the thing that snaps HIM out of it makes some kind of sense, even if it's a bunch of sci-fi jargon.

And then Kitty, the climax of the story, the big reveal at the end, and the non-ending.

Okay. Giving Kitty three full years' worth of false memories is over-the-top in and of itself, plus it's ripped straight off from For the Man Who Has Everything (where it made a whole lot more sense). I can't begin to understand the "Cassandra was turned into a disgusting slug thing which has apparently been imprisoned in the X-Men's basement since the 1980's" bit, though at least it jibes with Charlie's history of hiding crazy, booby-trapped shit from the team.

And speaking of Charlie's history and ripped-off stories, the whole "villain plants piece of consciousness in hero's mind after major battle" bit was used in the Onslaught story. Not a good bit of X-Men history to dredge back up.

Anyway. The ending is absurd and nonsensical; it's hard to tell what the fuck actually happens. Where are they going? Was Cassandra defeated? Was that Emma telling Scott to go to hell, Emma telling Cassandra to go to hell, or Cassandra telling Scott to go to hell?

This tends to violate the rule of collecting issues in a trade; what we've got here is something that you need to pick up the next issue to make any sense of.

So, okay, following the tl;dr rant, the moneyshot: has anyone read Astonishing past #18? Does it get better? Should I bother picking up the Unstoppable trade when it hits? (Has it yet?)

(EDIT: CBG says that no, it hasn't, and that yes, it's better than Torn.)

Thad · « **Reply #131 on:** May 29, 2008, 05:20:15 PM »

Final Crisis #1 is as good as I'd hoped. A good, solid New Gods story that ISN'T woefully derivative, a hard-boiled detective story with Turpin and Montoya on the ground and Stewart and Jordan in the sky, and, perhaps best of all, the return of Dark Side as he appeared in Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini. Even the bit with the Monitors seemed interesting.

This is the week to be a Morrison fan. I'll get to Batman and All-Star Superman when I read them.

Mongrel · « **Reply #132 on:** May 29, 2008, 05:56:19 PM »

Stuart Immonen was at my local comic shop yesterday for an artist's signing. There were maybe 15 folks hanging around total and half of them were industry artists. Good times.
He pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of there EVER being any kind of NextWave sequel (though there may be a What If one-shot... he couldn't actually come out and say so) and it seems that other than his webcomic he'll be roped into doing stock Marvel stuff for quite a while. Felt for the guy... Like many artists his best work comes when he can simply cut loose.

Anyway, that's your daily dose of newsmongering.

Thad · « **Reply #133 on:** May 29, 2008, 07:17:54 PM »

Trades I picked up for my Memorial Day vacation, part 2 of 3: Sandman, Volume 9: The Kindly Ones.

I expect I've shared my opinion of Sandman before, and even if I haven't, it jibes well with my general feelings on comics. Overall, I've found the loosely-connected done-in-one stories to be far more satisfying than the major arcs. I love the stories where Dream plays only an accessory role, and my favorite is probably Men of Good Fortune, with Golden Boy another favorite, an Allred-illustrated biblical retelling of an obscure Kirby series. So yeah, that stuff's right in line with what I love as a reader.

But Kindly Ones makes for a major exception. It is profound. As I read it, I felt I was reading not only a great story, but a culturally significant work.

My biggest criticism of Gaiman has always been his tendency to retell the same story over and over, and this is no exception -- the presence of Odin and Loki rather forcibly reminded me of (the later) American Gods -- but their presence here is necessary as symbols of what this story is about: Ragnarok.

The end times are a vital theme in mythology, and a symbol of the inevitable: Death and Destiny.

The book serves as a superb climax to a series that well deserves its reputation. Gaiman ties together threads from the previous stories so well that I feel an urge to reread them to look for the parts I've missed. (I'd entirely forgotten who Lyta and Daniel were, which tended to make the story a little harder to follow.) All in all, the fact that it took nine volumes to get here is totally worth it, and I am looking forward to eventually picking up the tenth. (Not sure about the eleventh. I have heard bad things, and my general experience is that adding on to a story after its intended ending rarely works out well.)

Anyway. For those of you who've had Sandman on a "yeah, I need to read that" list for awhile, remember that you do in fact need to read it. It is must-read. I don't really expect the non-comic fans (who probably aren't even reading this thread) to throw down for an eleven-volume epic, though I know a few who have; it's totally a comic that people who don't read comics read. Like Watchmen. And just as much a must-read.

Arc · « **Reply #134 on:** May 29, 2008, 07:48:25 PM »

Quote from: Thad on May 29, 2008, 07:17:54 PM

I don't really expect the non-comic fans (who probably aren't even reading this thread) to throw down for an eleven-volume epic,

One wonderful trait of the series is that once you finish a single volume, you know that you'll finish the series at some point in your lifetime. So abstractly different is one volume to the next, that leaving large gaps of time between reading them is a lesser issue than expected. Actually returning to previous volumes is pleasant, but not as necessary as first deemed. When a character that has been out of commission pops back up, what matters most is that particular moment, not the twists that had come beforehand (which is skillful writing in itself, since volume nine is centered around loose threads, and volume ten around remembrance).

Thad · « **Reply #135 on:** May 29, 2008, 08:10:30 PM »

Right; I was going to add to my comment about the Prez story that it flows perfectly well even if you've never heard of Prez before. Which I suppose makes sense, as writing a story exclusively for people who are familiar with him would severely limit the audience.

(I actually had no idea he was a throwback when I read it; I showed it to my uncle and he immediately recognized it as one of Jack Kirby's more embarrassing, less memorable works.)

Ted Belmont · « **Reply #136 on:** May 30, 2008, 02:28:33 PM »

Cassandra Nova is Xavier's evil twin sister from Morrison's run. I was going to try to explain in greater detail, but, being a Grant Morrison creation, her backstory is really weird and you'd be better off just reading theWiki entry.

Thad · « **Reply #137 on:** May 30, 2008, 02:47:25 PM »

See, I love Morrison, and have been meaning to check his run out for years now, but again...I hate the fucking X-Men.

Thad · « **Reply #138 on:** June 05, 2008, 12:53:29 AM »

Haven't read the backup feature in Trinity #1 yet, but the main story is very satisfying. Bagley's art does not disappoint, and while it's still too early to get a good bead on the story, Busiek has a clear handle on the archetypes of the Big Three; the most interesting hook is that they've all had a variation on the same dream, except that Superman saw the figure in it as an alien, Wonder Woman saw him as a god, and Batman saw him as a criminal.

There's also a good bit with Wally.

Compared to both 52 and Countdown (and like most folks, I liked the former and not the latter), it moves at a faster pace, most likely an issue of its page count, and doesn't have as many major characters to follow.

I'm a Thunderbolts fan from way back, so I'm not new to the Busiek/Bagley/Nicieza team. This is good work, and I'm optimistic about its future.

Will probably give my verdict on the backup feature when I've read it.

Thad · « **Reply #139 on:** June 05, 2008, 12:33:17 PM »

The backup feature is so-so. It has some great high-concept stuff from Busiek (more investigation of the rule of threes and the archetypal importance of the eponymous Trinity) and some (intentionally?) eye-rolling villain banter from Nicieza. I do not give a fuck who the Enigma is, though Kurt gets points for not picking Luthor/Joker/Cheetah as the villains. (Though they had goddamn well better show up at SOME point.)

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Author Topic: Funnybooks (Read 161458 times)