Topic: Funnybooks (Read 170854 times)

Thad · « **Reply #100 on:** April 21, 2008, 05:08:57 PM »

Kayma has the right idea.

I, too, am looking forward to Frank Miller's take on Bone.

Dooly · « **Reply #101 on:** April 21, 2008, 09:55:11 PM »

Quote from: Iron_Mongrel on April 21, 2008, 04:10:27 PM

"Copyright restricts this video from being played outside the US"

SCD · « **Reply #102 on:** April 24, 2008, 09:05:16 PM »

A new week, and a new comic book Wednesday shines upon me.

Thor -- Haven't purchased it yet. Anybody else?

Fables -- I'm unsure of why no one has even made mention of this series. It is well-written, and only gets better with time.

DMZ -- Just picked this one up the other day, although it has been around since 2006. DMZ takes place in a distopian NY where it is caught between the strife of the US, and the Free States of America. The protagonist is a Journalist intern who suddenly gets lifted into NY with a world-famous reporter. When he gets pushed away and the ride explodes, he has no choice but to stay, and eventually document the ongoings of a new york between a cellular rebellion and a nation who has lost its constitution, and way. I give this comic 6 floating JMS heads.

Mongrel · « **Reply #103 on:** April 24, 2008, 09:33:23 PM »

The only thing I picked up this week was the recent trade reissue of Largo Winch. Nothing great, but it was just good enough that I'll probably buy the second trade later... the things are dirt cheap anyway.

Thad · « **Reply #104 on:** April 25, 2008, 12:16:16 AM »

There was a new Thor? Blast, missed it.

DMZ's one of my favorites, though of Brian Wood's stuff my favorite is Local, because it's so real.

I mean, as I've noted before, it once featured a full splash page of my high school. It doesn't get any realer than that. I could literally walk a mile from where I am sitting, right this minute, and point to that building.

Anyway. Have been picking up JLA for the last few months since Dwayne McDuffie's been writing it, and hey, he was head writer on JLU when all that awesome shit was going on. Despite his use of JLU-esque material such as Waller and the Suicide Squad and the Injustice League, it's been thoroughly blah for the most part, but I quite liked #20. It wasn't really a JLA story so much as a Brave and the Bold story, since it was just Flash and Wonder Woman with a Black Lightning cameo, but it was a very satisfying Brave and the Bold story. Another book that was on my chopping block puts out an issue good enough for me to hang on at least another month.

Ennis and Chaykin's War is Hell is basically a forgettable book with pretty art.

Oh, and one more on Final Crisis, via Nrama:

Quote

"It's just astonishing," Morrison said. "I mean, the scene I keep talking about is the bit where it's the Terrible Turpin character, the private detective, and he's using a toilet seat to beat the Mad Hatter to death. And you know, I wrote that scene, and you can't even imagine how that may play in a comic. But then you get his version of it, and it's Martin Scorsese plus. You know? And there's blood on the walls and there's actually real physical pain, and suddenly, the whole scene comes to life. And the way he draws Turpin as this old man, but he's clearly the toughest guy you've ever seen -- he catches it, every nuance.. how he holds his cigarettes... everything's there. It's just amazing."

SOLD.

Great, just great to hear about Turpin getting some use. His death was probably the best moment on Superman: TAS. He's a great damn character, and I love seeing the attention Morrison's paying to the entire Fourth World universe, including its more mundane elements.

Reminder: Free Comic Book Day is a week from Saturday.

Cannon · « **Reply #105 on:** April 28, 2008, 11:21:20 AM »

Like any other mostly mediocre or poor example of storytelling, Countdown had its moments. The genesis of Kamandi/When Furries Ruled the Earth (which was... What? Issues four and five?) was something I found honestly creepy, but I was a big enough dupe to think the Great Disaster occured on New Earth, thus...

The last surviving New God wasn't really a shocker, but it was almost a fight worthy of Kirby, and something of a cathartic resolution for the winner (at least I thought so).

I'll just judge each story arc's resolution individually... Una/Karate Kid's was a real downer, Challengers of the Unknown's had one nice twist but wasn't very meaty, Pied Piper and Trickster felt kind of hollow (this was a thread of Salvation Run, which is still a worthwhile mini-series), and Jason Todd was mostly set-up for future stories involving the character. I didn't much care for Mary's single issue, compressed reversal in a decompressed, multiple issue storyline, and alongside Monarch's "origin," I want a better explanation for them down the line. They both scream "editorial made me do it." I've always been a fan of and identified with Jimmy (I suppose you can judge that yourself), but he's always been such a static goof that I'd like to see him become more dynamic, and it certainly seems like DC's intent ("I'm not a geeky screw-up anymore"). Superman-Prime kind of endeared himself to me when he bitched up Mr. Mxyzptlk... In that the issue in question made me slightly nauseous (though it wasn't due to the violence, per se). I still think the character has promise, so I was glad to hear that the Battle of Earth-51 isn't going to keep him down.

However, I still have to read issue one. Whoops! I'll stop by the dork store later and maybe do an update. Still, I can safely say that 52 was superior. I'll be collecting the trades, but I'm an admittedly biased fool with money.

Speaking tangentially about meta-fictional characters, there's an Ambush Bug special coming out down the line. Giffen is involved, and that's all I or anyone else needs to know. Someone really needs to get him (the absurd and comedic perspective), Animal Man (the spiritual/meta-physical approach), and Prime (fanboy rage personified) in a story together, honestly. ...Though, yeah, that could just make for bad fiction.

Thad · « **Reply #106 on:** April 30, 2008, 01:20:02 AM »

Quote from: Thad on March 05, 2008, 11:28:27 PM

if Captain Marvel turns out not to be a Skrull I'm going to be very disappointed.

Have not been reading Secret Invasion, but from a glance at Nrama, it appears that I am indeed the master of the obvious.

Anyone reading the thing? Anything else I should give a fuck about?

I still want to see Norman Osborn turn out to be a Skrull. Because seriously, a Skrull disguising itself as the Green Goblin would just be awesome. HUGE SKRULL BALLS.

Büge · « **Reply #107 on:** April 30, 2008, 05:03:30 AM »

Quote from: Thad on April 30, 2008, 01:20:02 AM

Anyone reading the thing? Anything else I should give a fuck about?

Let me get back to you when the trade comes out.

Cannon · « **Reply #108 on:** April 30, 2008, 09:54:51 AM »

For the record, I'm not really a fan of Brian Michael Bendis's writing, but I am enjoying Secret Invasion - partially because, as Quesada helpfully said in his column, Bendis has been setting up the Skrulls' plan for years now. It's an honest-to-goodness mystery, and although I'm at a disadvantage for not being a consistent Marvel reader since the Kree-Skrull War, the positioning of the Skrulls is making sense (to say nothing of the "what's inside the Skrull pod" reveal). At first blush, I'd say it's shaping up to be one of the better retcons in recent memory, even though I'd bet good money on them pulling some bullcrap "so-and-so is a Cyl - Erm... Skrull" twist down the line, but it's just the first issue and the details of the jerks' plan haven't come to light.

Well, I'm the DC minion here and they've sold me. Does that tell anyone anything?

Büge · « **Reply #109 on:** April 30, 2008, 12:24:10 PM »

I do have a pet hypothesis. The Hawkeye who [spoiler]exploded himself in order to take out a Kree ship in Avengers Disassembled[/spoiler] was/is a Skrull, since [spoiler]Skrulls hate the Kree and vice versa, so Skrull-Hawkeye could meet his death in a way that benefited Skrulls as a whole while maintaining the pretense of heroism[/spoiler]. The Hawkeye who [spoiler]was brought to life, went into hiding and adopted the moniker Ronin[/spoiler] was/is the real one, because [spoiler]whatever rules for resurrection the MU follow probably don't allow for resurrecting impostors[/spoiler].

I don't know if there's a statute of limitations on these sorts of spoilarz, so I'm playing it safe.

Cannon · « **Reply #110 on:** April 30, 2008, 12:46:55 PM »

That's probably not a bad theory, considering that [spoiler]the Silver Age Hawkeye was one of the heroes(?) who emerged from the crashed Skrull pod, though perhaps Ronin isn't related[/spoiler]. That was the "big twist" for issue one, at least. Again, I'm not a Marvel reader, but I'm tempted to pick up the trades Quesada mentioned in the letter col' of this chapter (which was obviously and entirely his intent) just to be informed.

Thad · « **Reply #111 on:** April 30, 2008, 12:56:57 PM »

Yeah, I'd say don't bother with the spoiler tags for Disassembled; that was 4 years ago and anyone who gives a fuck already knows how it went. I'm not even bothering with spoiler tags on the Secret Invasion stuff; I assume the people who are reading it know more than I do about it since I'm not.

I read something on Nrama about a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of a Skrull in the background right around the time Hawkeye dies. (Related: that was the last issue of Avengers I bought.)

Disassembled itself, of course, ended with one of the most bullshit retcons in recent memory.

Anyway. "Captain Marvel is actually a Skrull" was a gimme; the "he had his memory replaced with Captain Marvel's" was unexpected by virtue of being completely stupid. "We're going to disguise one of our guys as our greatest enemy. While we're at it, we're also going to make him think he actually IS our greatest enemy. What could go wrong?"

Thad · « **Reply #112 on:** May 01, 2008, 10:39:21 PM »

Millar talks about War Heroes. Sounds pretty good -- an Ultimates-esque story of Super Soldiers going to war.

Kayma · « **Reply #113 on:** May 02, 2008, 10:07:03 AM »

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTUds1JgcM" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTUds1JgcM</a>

Great day, or greatest day?

I'm going to hand out so many heroclix.

Thad · « **Reply #114 on:** May 03, 2008, 12:54:10 AM »

DCAU tangent (we should probably get us a DCAU thread one of these days): I was just reading the ol' Wikipedia, and I read that, as originally aired, Turpin's funeral scene included cameos by Nick Fury, the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and a number of other Kirby creations, friends, and fans. A quick YouTube search only comes up with the edited version from the reruns and DVD; anybody (Lyrai?) happen to know where I can find the full scene?

EDIT: Nevermind, looks like I actually had a copy sitting on an old backup disc from back before the show came out on DVD. Poor-quality rip, lots of artifacting, and it looks like the audio sync's bad on top of it, but it's definitely got the shot with Fury, Reed, Sue, and Johnny in it.

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #115 on:** May 03, 2008, 12:55:15 AM »

Free Comic Book Day! Wooooooooo

Thad · « **Reply #116 on:** May 03, 2008, 01:20:29 PM »

Hoooo BOY I'm likely to have an awful lot to talk about since I snagged a copy of literally every free book they had. (Probably won't read them all myself; plan to give a bunch away to younger cousins.)

What I've read so far: the not-free (but close!) DCU0. It's like the Countdown to Infinite Crisis preview in that it's a cheapy book made up of a series of teasers for upcoming stories, but it's better than that one was. Still not great; its primary problem is that it shows a bunch of incomplete vignettes, a couple of which I care about and most of which I don't, and the best one of which I already read for free on the Internet (see Batman thread).

The big reveal on the last page is well-handled. For me, it was also a head-slap moment as I'd been trying to figure out who the narrator was and, in hindsight, the clues were not subtle. Plus, the writing's been on the wall for this one since Ollie came back from the dead.

The execution of the last page, though, is excellent; it's not a big punch-in-the-face reveal, it's more of a slow dawning. I wouldn't call it subtle, exactly, but it's not as overt as you'd expect.

I don't plan on picking up most of the books advertised in this thing, but I'm definitely looking forward to the ones Morrison's writing.

Anyway. The thing's 50 cents; there's really no good reason NOT to pick it up.

Kayma · « **Reply #117 on:** May 03, 2008, 03:45:55 PM »

Our store made the most munny it has ever made in one day. Ever.

Free comic book day is

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #118 on:** May 04, 2008, 10:39:15 PM »

Did anybody else get the FCBD Gumby comic? I don't know what to think after reading that. But it must be read.

Thad · « **Reply #119 on:** May 04, 2008, 11:36:24 PM »

It's in the stack; I'll let you know when I get to it.

I love Burden's work, and Gumby's been consistently one of the best books I've read. (Incidentally, the first two issues are free downloads on wowio.com , same place that has the entirety of TMNT vol 4.)

News:

Author Topic: Funnybooks (Read 170854 times)