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[Mongrel]

Hey hey hey, I said "Looks like"

First and foremost, ol' Stan is a marketer of... ol' Stan.

[Thad]

Matt Seneca at Robot 6 has a Kirby feature that ties into what we were saying about Stan Lee narration a bit ago:

Of the brickbats most commonly thrown at Kirby’s golden legacy, one of the most compelling is that he very rarely “told a story” in the traditional manner with his sequencing.  Especially in his action scenes, Kirby’s storytelling style was often simply too wild to support “correct” sequencing, with each panel giving a clue to the content of the next and every prop and figure grounded in recognizable three-dimensional space.  In Kirby fight scenes characters transmogrify from one physical state to another between panels, hurl each other across vast chasms of space before clashing again within an instant, and reveal heretofore unknown powers as the conflicts crescendo.  Usually there’s just too much going on in a Kirby fight scene for the traditional values of motion tracking and choreography to hold much sway.  It’s also why Kirby comics are so verbose: take out the explanatory word balloons and you haven’t a hope of understanding the specifics of what’s going on half the time.

Now, we were talking about Spider-Man and that's a different kettle of fish -- Ditko's storytelling is much more straightforward and it's easy to tell what's going on without reading the text in his Spider-Man stories.  But, given that Kirby was Lee's most frequent collaborator, it IS interesting to consider that all that exposition, all the narration (both omniscient and from the characters themselves), was often necessary for the reader to be able to tell just what the fuck was going on in any given issue.  (Oh, by the way, Sue can generate force fields now.)

MEANWHILE: The early reviews of this week's quarter of the New 52 are coming in; take a gander at CBR or Bleeding Cool if you're interested and don't mind spoilers (the biggest of which is how Deathstroke #1 ends).  Consensus seems to be that Demon Knights is the best of the lot this week, which is good because that's the one I've probably been looking forward to most besides Action.

[Thad]

oh and Amanda Waller's skinny now.

[Bongo Bill]

Solution: whoever's writing and drawing Suicide Squad draws her slightly fatter in each issue, as the stress of dealing with all these lunatic supervillains gets to her. Sort of a reverse Power Girl (yes, I know that was just an urban legend).

[Thad]

Actually, there are quite a few posts in the comments thread suggesting that this, like many of the books, is set in the past and we're going to "learn how Amanda Waller got fat".

I think they're joking but I'm not sure.

...wait, I got it: they knew this would get people to quit bitching about Harley's new design!

[Büge]

Now, we were talking about Spider-Man and that's a different kettle of fish -- Ditko's storytelling is much more straightforward and it's easy to tell what's going on without reading the text in his Spider-Man stories.  But, given that Kirby was Lee's most frequent collaborator, it IS interesting to consider that all that exposition, all the narration (both omniscient and from the characters themselves), was often necessary for the reader to be able to tell just what the fuck was going on in any given issue.  (Oh, by the way, Sue can generate force fields now.)

Funny, I was just reading the first few issues of OMAC online and it was an exhilarating experience. I got the feeling that Lee would have tried to reel him in if they were collaborating on it.

[Büge]

So okay. DC reboots. Power Girl no longer exists but "Karen Starr" does. And she's a supporting character in Mr. Terrific's book. And the writer's gone on record to say:

Of course now the question is, what will Karen’s involvement be in the book? Sorry, no spoilers here. Beyond confirming her presence as an integral part of Michael’s journey, I can only say that you’ll have to wait for issue #1 to find out how it all begins.

So this page shows up in the book:



The "integral part of Michael’s journey" quote is bothering me. I have this unpleasant feeling that they're fitting her for a fridge.

[Lottel]

If that's the case, he's going to get blood on his mouth. Which will make him stain the bottom of his 'T' red.

[Thad]

Funny, I was just reading the first few issues of OMAC online and it was an exhilarating experience. I got the feeling that Lee would have tried to reel him in if they were collaborating on it.

I think the only reeling-in Stan ever really did was through the script he added after the pages were already drawn.  Kirby did pretty much whatever crazy shit he wanted -- remember that the Silver Surfer wasn't part of the original conversation about the Galactus Trilogy at all.

[Royal☭]

Since the store was sold out of every DC book I wanted to read when I got in, I decided to pick up Ultimate Spider-man #1, starring Miles Morales as the new Spider-man.

Or at least, it probably will in 3-4 issues.

The problem with the big Marvel events that are supposed to shake up the status quo and establish a new working universe is that, well, Bendis is still the writer. He's been writing Ultimate Spider-man for over a decade now, and you can tell he's kind of lost steam. His stories are taking longer and longer to tell us stuff that we probably are already familiar with. Since it's a  Spider-man story, we know the beats are that Miles will get bit by the spider, misuse his power, lose someone close him and learn about Power and Responsibility before being inspired to take up the mantle of Spider-man. That's just the way it goes.

Ditko and Lee did it in 22 pages, Bendis circa 2000 did it in 3 comics. By the end of this Ultimate Spider-man #1, Miles has only JUST been bitten by the spider. This would be more forgivable if anything else interesting happened in the other pages. But, nothing much but people talking about exposition gets done. And most of it is the same kind of rapid-fire family drama dialogue that I'm sure Bendis has a program on his computer to generate.

On the plus side, Sara Pichelli does draw really good art, with expressive characters and interesting panel design (even if Bendis seems to be forcing her to draw his trademark double-page spread of a lot of little panels of talking heads). The colors are also vivid and bright, rather than the dark, gritty colors of most modern superhero comics.

Is it worth following further? That's up for debate. In Miles's first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4, he's already in costume beating up bad guys and delivering the Spider-man banter. In this, he's mopey and silent. I understand the dichotomy between quiet Peter Parker and wise-cracking Spider-man, but it just feels weird to get a taste of Miles being Spider-man, then have to set through maybe 40+ pages of him getting to that point.

[Thad]

Finally got around to Stormwatch.  (I might be a week behind on some books for awhile, given the shortages; I didn't get Frankenstein or Demon Knights this week, either.)

It's...about as mediocre as everybody's saying.  Too slow, like many of the relaunch books, and it perversely spends more time introducing the existing characters than the new ones.  Neither Cornell's plot nor his script is up to his usual high standard.  (I hear Demon Knights is much better.)

The best part was spoiled in advance: the villain in the first story arc is the moon.  Now THAT is the Stormwatch I know and love.  (Well, the Authority I know and love.  I never actually read the original Stormwatch run.)

I mostly hate the new costumes, I still don't see how it's a good idea to drop Apollo and Midnighter in the same world as Superman and Batman, and it also bugs me that they're not Jenny Quantum's adoptive parents.  (On the plus side, they've tossed out all the lazy, stupid Jenny-artificially-ages-herself-and-then-gets-killed crap from the last few volumes of Authority.)

I like that J'onn J'onzz's JLA membership hasn't been completely retconned out, but he still seems like a weird fit.

At least the Photoshop dickery fits the comic, though; that's a rare thing.

All in all, I'm probably still onboard since I like Cornell and there are enough good ideas here to keep me curious.  But mostly I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Demon Knights.

[Zach]

Demon Knights is fun. Especially [spoiler]Vandal Savage[/spoiler].

[Zaratustra]

Martian Manhunter being in both does explain how the JL has never heard of Stormwatch.

[Thad]

So a lot of people have said great things about Batwoman #1, but there's something I haven't noticed being talked about: it's a great issue 1.

It's a great introduction to the character and her world, and tells you everything you need to know even if your only past DC experience is from the Batman movies.  It's better at that than most of the other "New 52" books I've read -- and it wasn't even WRITTEN as a New 52 book.  (Which also explains why its cliffhanger ending is low-key and natural instead of being a totally forced "OH MY FUCK" splash page.)

Yes, the backstory's there; Sawyer's in there, and Montoya is acknowledged.  And it looks like Chase is going to be part of this arc.  But everything you need to know about Batwoman is right there -- her origin story and the ending of her last big arc are right there, with a few lines of dialogue, across a very pretty two-page spread.

Speaking of which, Williams continues to kill it on the art.  Dialogue's a little flat, but I never bought the book for Rucka's writing anyway.

Definitely one of the better ones I've seen.  Not quite up there with Action and Animal Man, but probably my #3 at this point.

[Thad]

CA: Cartoonist (and Non-Superhero Reader) Carolyn Main Hilariously Reviews the DC Comics New 52

Another look at a few of the books from a new reader perspective.  Edifying!  And this reader, at least, thought Animal Man was new reader-friendly and also awesome.  Which is what I thought!

[Thad]

Welp, new books out today.  Wonder Woman is shaping up to be the surprise hit of the week.  I'm not much of an Azzarello fan, but maybe I'll check it out.  By which I mean ask my CBG to hold one for me when he gets his next shipment in, because fucking everything is sold out again this week.

Still, I'll be going today, for the books I didn't get LAST week, but mostly for the new Love and Rockets.  Which apparently is even more emotionally brutal than last year's.

EDIT: L&R AND Dark Horse Presents.  With a Beasts of Burden AND an Age of Reptiles.  AND the latest Treehouse of Horror, with a piece by Jim Woodring.

Jeez, comics, my birthday isn't for another week and a half!

[Lottel]

Um... What the hell happened to Starfire?

[Mongrel]

Welp, new books out today.  Wonder Woman is shaping up to be the surprise hit of the week.  I'm not much of an Azzarello fan, but maybe I'll check it out.  By which I mean ask my CBG to hold one for me when he gets his next shipment in, because fucking everything is sold out again this week.

Still, I'll be going today, for the books I didn't get LAST week, but mostly for the new Love and Rockets.  Which apparently is even more emotionally brutal than last year's.

EDIT: L&R AND Dark Horse Presents.  With a Beasts of Burden AND an Age of Reptiles.  AND the latest Treehouse of Horror, with a piece by Jim Woodring.

Jeez, comics, my birthday isn't for another week and a half!

Wait... AZZARELLO's writing Wonder Woman?

[Büge]

Scuttlebutt has it that the book is quite good, too.

[Lottel]

Translator's note:
Scuttlebutt means gossip or rumor.