Comics X: The Great Ten

[Winterfell is Burning]

I ended up picking Tooth and Claw #1 based on everyone's recommendation and I'm not sorry; Looking forward to see where it goes.

[red snow]

Finallygot a copy of the wake final issue. It may have been the big gap between reads but i have to save the ending fell really flat for me. Like a synopsis of a story arc rather than an actual issue. Oh well the art was good at least - shame he has been shackled to mark millar. I swear he steals all the interesting artists. I guess his instant movie options work as bait.

In other snyder news i have to admit that wytches 2 was good. Havent got a clue whats going on but i think that is intentional for the horror atmosphere. Jock is nailing it s usual.

From the reviews here axis sounds best avoided. It is a shame as i think remender has it in him to do an event but the macro managers have probably gutted the original idea.

[Sci-2]

From the reviews here axis sounds best avoided. It is a shame as i think remender has it in him to do an event but the macro managers have probably gutted the original idea.

Marvel making everything an event is actually killing their story telling. Infinity had the same problem. Apparently this wasn't supposed to be a big part of the story, and actually ate into Hickman's issues....though to be fair he ate his own story with those issues where the Avengers just jump forward in time.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Part of what made Hickman's Fantastic Four run work so well was that most of his stories were ones that were so big that they would normally become events, but were allowed to simply play out naturally only in the F4 and FF books rather than force 500 tie-ins that make no sense.

[Nictarion]

Finallygot a copy of the wake final issue. It may have been the big gap between reads but i have to save the ending fell really flat for me. Like a synopsis of a story arc rather than an actual issue. Oh well the art was good at least - shame he has been shackled to mark millar. I swear he steals all the interesting artists. I guess his instant movie options work as bait.

It peaked in the first couple issues. I wouldn't say I was disappointed with it overall, but I wasn't blown away by it either. It was just decent.

[red snow]

Part of what made Hickman's Fantastic Four run work so well was that most of his stories were ones that were so big that they would normally become events, but were allowed to simply play out naturally only in the F4 and FF books rather than force 500 tie-ins that make no sense.

Which is what the FF was like in its golden age - larger than life stories that were events within themselves. Marvel and DC can't bare to let books do that within themselves anymore. Sometimes they slip through like Remender's "Dark Angel" story or Geoff Johns' "sinestro corps" or Snyder's "court of owls" but the last two still spilled into sister titles. Once they have a success like that it's rare the writer ever gets to repeat said event as they'll make sure it's a line-wide event. Dan Slott has been relatively lucky with his spidey stories - although it seems as though spider-verse already has a ton of spin offs in of itself.

[red snow]

It peaked in the first couple issues. I wouldn't say I was disappointed with it overall, but I wasn't blown away by it either. It was just decent.

I think the art carried the vast majority of the book. The first few issues felt like a story though, the rest was just a load of ideas/sketches thrown at us,

[Sci-2]

Got other books, will read/write about them later....

Multiversity - Pax Americana: Gorgeous, gorgeous art. I really didn't think Frank Quietly would draw the whole thing, even after all these years. Calls back to the beauty of Flex Mentallo. Fairbairn's colors really bring Quietly's pencils to life. The whole combination feels American to me.

As to the story, it took me a bit to get what was happening. This set of annotations explained some things I missed.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Uncanny X-men #28- If you enjoy books with 15 pages of story in which the plot doesn't move forward at all, this is the book for you.

Avengers #38- Sunspot is now the defacto leader of the Avengers (or at least, the one Avengers team that is actually doing something), who saw that one coming? This also seems to indicate the reason as to why 616 Cyclops will feature in Secret Wars. It's an issue to set some things in motion, but it's an effective one.

New Avengers #26- Featuring the most deranged Tony Stark of all time. It also does a 180º on everything we knew about Black Swan, if what Tony found out about her is true.

Daredevil #10- This reminded my why Waid's run was so good and why he'll be missed- he manages to make Daredevil more light-hearted than previous runs, but without forgetting all the issues Matt had. It's the perfect bridge between pre and post Miller Daredevil, and he didn't have a single bad issue yet.

[Nictarion]

Got other books, will read/write about them later....

Multiversity - Pax Americana: Gorgeous, gorgeous art. I really didn't think Frank Quietly would draw the whole thing, even after all these years. Calls back to the beauty of Flex Mentallo. Fairbairn's colors really bring Quietly's pencils to life. The whole combination feels American to me.

As to the story, it took me a bit to get what was happening. This set of annotations explained some things I missed.

Another great issue. I also was a bit lost at first. I agree about the art, this issue looked great. Loved all the Watchmen stuff.

[red snow]

Pax americana was excellent and it was almost entirely down to Frank Quietly. His composition of panels is a joy to behold. Take the staircase page for instance - the progression of the panels runs completely counter to the standard left to right method yet I navigated the whole thing without even thinking about it. I tried to explain to my girlfriend the beauty of this design but she couldn't really appreciate it as she doesn't read comics. The Janus mirroring and the split narrative of the murder/investigation was all genuis. I have to wonder if Frank does this all on his own or if Grant knows Frank can do it and throws this stuff at him. I suspect Morrison trusts Frank with a script and he says "do what you think works".

It's such a shame he's been wasted on that Millar book, I'd almost buy it if it wasn't for the fact the first issue was so dull and desperately trying to be hip. I also need to eat my words with the schedule for this series as with Quietly's issue out I imagine it can run on track now.

The only downside to this series is that I'm picking up nothing in terms of "bigger story" . There's a haunted comic and that's it. It really just feels like "look at this world, you could make a series out of this" which I'm absolutely fine with when they are this well executed,

[Sci-2]

Avengers #38 & New Avengers #26: There's some great stuff in this story, but Hickman really wasted our time with the time jumping Avengers. Are we ever going to see at least some of how this set of circumstances came about? I get some of it would be tedious set up we've had in past hero vs hero conflicts but I'd like to see a bit about Nightmask and Starbrand getting younger, Sunspot taking over AIM, and so on.

Another big problem is Hickman is STILL pulling the secret flashback stuff on us, where stuff happened but it either gets a single panel or is only talked around. Wasn't there a dead Living Tribunal? Didn't Reeds and Tony visit somebody who had "three months" to do something?

[Little Valkyrie]

. I have to wonder if Frank does this all on his own or if Grant knows Frank can do it and throws this stuff at him. I suspect Morrison trusts Frank with a script and he says "do what you think works".

Not remotely, in this case:

http://www.newsarama.com/22784-frank-quitely-on-pax-americana-subsequent-readings-will-reward-you.html

Very detailed script down to thumbnails, and a lot of collaborative work.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I recently read Wonder Woman #36 and was highly pissed off about it. Instead of being a mature adult (meaning age 27-35) who is empowered and can kick-ass and still look attractive, the new writers have made her into a 20-21 y/o ingenue who needs Superman and Aquaman by her side. They even had her holding a teddy bear after a fight. Fuck you, DC Comics. After seeing Marvel do great things recently with Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk and now Thor and Spider Woman, this is really offensive. I have always been a DC fanboy, but now after this I'm 100% in the Marvel camp.

[red snow]

Not remotely, in this case:

http://www.newsarama.com/22784-frank-quitely-on-pax-americana-subsequent-readings-will-reward-you.html

Very detailed script down to thumbnails, and a lot of collaborative work.

That's a great link. Seems like Morrison knows Quietly can pull off the complicated panel compositions. The pencils were great too as the 32 panel spread did not look like a single room to me in colour (due to different times of day) whereas in the pencils it was obvious (and better IMO).

I have to admit I got more out of the comic on the second reading as I tied things together better.

[Little Valkyrie]

I recently read Wonder Woman #36 and was highly pissed off about it. Instead of being a mature adult (meaning age 27-35) who is empowered and can kick-ass and still look attractive, the new writers have made her into a 20-21 y/o ingenue who needs Superman and Aquaman by her side. They even had her holding a teddy bear after a fight. Fuck you, DC Comics. After seeing Marvel do great things recently with Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk and now Thor and Spider Woman, this is really offensive. I have always been a DC fanboy, but now after this I'm 100% in the Marvel camp.

I'd put Finch/Finch Wondy about at the same level of "why.jpg" as Hopeless/Land Spider-Woman; may they both be short runs replaced by a better team.

[Nictarion]

I recently read Wonder Woman #36 and was highly pissed off about it. Instead of being a mature adult (meaning age 27-35) who is empowered and can kick-ass and still look attractive, the new writers have made her into a 20-21 y/o ingenue who needs Superman and Aquaman by her side. They even had her holding a teddy bear after a fight. Fuck you, DC Comics. After seeing Marvel do great things recently with Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk and now Thor and Spider Woman, this is really offensive. I have always been a DC fanboy, but now after this I'm 100% in the Marvel camp.

Don't pat Marvel on the back too much, at least wrt She Hulk, they've already cancelled it.

[Little Valkyrie]

Don't pat Marvel on the back too much, at least wrt She Hulk, they've already cancelled it.

And apparently the reason for that is Soule's schedule, since he's busy writing everything they need to be written for corporate/money reasons and actually need to be done reasonably well (Inhumans and a weekly Wolverines book that no one asked for).

I hope he's getting paid well by the Mouse.

[red snow]

Soule seems to be the go-to guy for this kind of thing. Kieron Gillen must be worried about his future at Marvel.

Over in Pax americana - did they ever tell us who the comedian guy with the metal arm was? I've read the issue twice now and still can't figure out who he is. I have to say it made a lot more sense the second time around but I think I'll be delving into some annotations to get the most out of it. I was reading an interesting theory that the "threat" is actually corporate comics and that each issue is showing how a certain style could destroy the medium eg Alan Moore's deconstruction etc. Sounds like Morrison and is actually pretty ballsy as a swan song on corporate comics.

[Sci-2]

Over in Pax americana - did they ever tell us who the comedian guy with the metal arm was?

Sarge Steel I think? It was an existing Charleston character.

I'm amazed that Millar is still putting out Jupiter's Legacy, and Quietly is still wasting his time. Money must be great for the latter, but Millar should call it a day and just tell people to read Morrison's The Just.

On Pax Americana itself:

Spoiler

Did Captain Adam really walk into the past to show Harley the nature of time? Because I agree with the people who say Algorithm-8 is just nonsense created by someone wishing they could make sense of a world in which they murdered their father by accident. It's very similar to Batman R.I.P. where Joker exploits Batman's belief that the world must make sense.