Comics IV

[Nephrite]

I was hoping he'd be shooting energy blasts out of his nose. This could be used to excellent manga affect the next time he catches white queen popping out of her costume (which must happen a lot between panels).

Clean thoughts, chum.

And yeah, University of Texas is pro-mutants. Probably the most unrealistic thing in a comicbook about people with magical genetic powers.

[Sci-2]

Yeah, I actually thought the complaints about Avengers not being diverse enough was a bit premature as people were looking at the cover and initial pages. Of course, the last page of Issue 1 sorta lays that to rest.

I like having diversity in the characters, but I'll admit I didn't buy Blue Beetle, and I think I bought an issue of Doctor Voodoo? Part of the issue is comics are expensive, so most people are going to go with characters and series they know.

I do think creator owned series is where diversity has a better chance to shine.

[red snow]

I think when launching a new character in MArvel/DC it would help having a big name creator involved. Miles Morales probably wouldn't have done so well without Bendis being involved and the hype surrounding Peter Parker's death, whereas Blue Beetle was never that popular to begin with and none of the writers were current A listers. if Morrison had introduced Blue Beetle I would have gave it a shot.

[Sci-2]

I think when launching a new character in MArvel/DC it would help having a big name creator involved. Miles Morales probably wouldn't have done so well without Bendis being involved and the hype surrounding Peter Parker's death, whereas Blue Beetle was never that popular to begin with and none of the writers were current A listers. if Morrison had introduced Blue Beetle I would have gave it a shot.

That's a good point. I did think of Batman Inc when diversity was mentioned, though the book is more Gotham centric at the moment which is to be expected. Batwoman has JH Williams on art [and features a lesbian protagonist], and so far I like the storytelling done in that book.

I am looking forward to seeing what Hickman does. Issue one definitely left me wanting to know more about the characters Tony and Steve picked out. I also liked the three villains based on three different primordial concepts.

Glad that Issue 2 is coming out before the year ends.

[Little Valkyrie]

And yeah, University of Texas is pro-mutants. Probably the most unrealistic thing in a comicbook about people with magical genetic powers.

Austin is full of hippies. No, really. Someone actually did do their research, there.

[GallowKnight]

I tried to read Thunderbolts #1, however I don't think I can read a superhero book where everyone reminds me of Jesse Custer, Tulip and Herr Starr. I love Steve Dillon, put I will never be able to relate his artwork to anything other than Preacher.

[Sci-2]

Heh, Robinson lays some truth down while talking about Earth 2:

Ironically, my origin of Jay Garrick is not unlike the origin of Hal Jordan, where you have a dying alien passing the ring onto Hal Jordan. "Let's make it simple." Mercury is the last god of Earth 2, and he passes on his powers to someone new. In the past, you would have to explain his origin and all this stupid nonsense of how Jay Garrick got his powers for hours, but now you could tell your grandmother how he got his powers and she'd understand.

[Little Valkyrie]

Heh, Robinson lays some truth down while talking about Earth 2:

Robinson is mai comics husbando. Also, latest issue shows further gains on the diversity and complex plot front.

[Nephrite]

Heh, Robinson lays some truth down while talking about Earth 2:

I thought this was a rather simple explanation for Jay's origin.

Oh, wait that was just Johns giving Allen a hand-job.

In Scott Snyder news:

That's not how pupils work.

[Sci-2]

@Lil' Valkyrie: Yeah, Earth 2 is coming off as more coherent and more interesting than Earth 1. I'm rather sure that the Pandora stuff is going suffer hard for Didio's involvement, and I hope it doesn't end up dragging Earth 2 into it. The guy is a fan fiction level writer.

@Nephrite: God, that Flash Rebirth stuff was just garbage. I know some people thought Clown at Midnight was hokey/overwritten, and I can accept that. But I would like to point them to Snyder's stuff and ask them to reconsider.

[Winterfell is Burning]

I thought this was a rather simple explanation for Jay's origin.

Oh, wait that was just Johns giving Allen a hand-job.

To me, Geoff Johns is to DC what Jeph Loeb is to Marvel: the more books he touches, the worse things get and the more characters he ruins, and the best thing you do is either ignore what he wrote completely or put him in out of continuity books only.

Mind you, after the Ultimatum debacle, Marvel seems to have learned their lesson with Loeb, and mostly put him in unimportant stuff. DC hasn't...

[Sci-2]

Johns needs someone to cut him off books when he starts going down the road to wonkiness. Sinestro Corps War was cool, Blackest Night was confusing and corny...and that's coming from someone who even liked the rainbow corps.

The stuff that followed - Krona, Third Army - was nigh-nonsensical bloat.

[red snow]

I haven't read any Johns since the DC relaunch. I have to say I really liked what he did with Green Lantern but it did feel like it was in constant event mode after Blackest night and i still think Hal is a dull character surrounded by interesting mythology and supporting cast. I thought his Superman was good until he kind of gave up on it. I thought his Flash run was utter crap though so it may well be that Johns has lost the plot a lot since Blackest Night, I still think he has a long way to fall until he reaches Jeph Loeb levels of toxicity though although a remember a time when I thought he was good too.

I'm pleased Robinson is on a book where things are clicking for him. I love that thinly-veiled dig at what the rest of the industry is doing with origins at the moment.

If that's how Joker's eyes work, I'd say he has glass ones. He'd be the first eye-based creature to see more by having smaller pupils, that's for sure. Maybe he uses his maniacal laugh for echo location? Are they setting up to be someone who has read the comics from the old DC? As he seems to know far too much these days.

[Little Valkyrie]

I haven't read any Johns since the DC relaunch. I have to say I really liked what he did with Green Lantern but it did feel like it was in constant event mode after Blackest night and i still think Hal is a dull character surrounded by interesting mythology and supporting cast. I thought his Superman was good until he kind of gave up on it. I thought his Flash run was utter crap though so it may well be that Johns has lost the plot a lot since Blackest Night, I still think he has a long way to fall until he reaches Jeph Loeb levels of toxicity though although a remember a time when I thought he was good too.

I'm pleased Robinson is on a book where things are clicking for him. I love that thinly-veiled dig at what the rest of the industry is doing with origins at the moment.

I can never really hate Johns because his JSA and his Wally!Flash are some of my favorite books, but he's spread too thin right now and needs another editor to smack him upside the head occasionally. Justice League is inexcusably all over the map, and even trying to think about Lantern continuity--not even obsessively, but casually--makes my head hurt to the point of mandatory margaritas. I think bringing Hal back was not a bad idea in that it really revitalized the franchise as a whole and got it back to wacky space hijinks, but there's interesting stuff with that character that he totally ignored (I liked DeMatteis Spectre even though it's so not my type of story.)

Loeb, on the other hand, just needs a lot of therapy. I'm still more negative about Bendis GotG than Loeb Nova, though.

I also like that in those interviews, Robinson is upfront that his JLA work was not his best (it wasn't, it really wasn't), and that he's structuring things differently as he has the ability to, on this run.

(Also, I approve of Lil' Valkyrie as a shortening of my nom de guerre. It makes me lol!)

[Winterfell is Burning]

Johns needs someone to cut him off books when he starts going down the road to wonkiness. Sinestro Corps War was cool, Blackest Night was confusing and corny...and that's coming from someone who even liked the rainbow corps.

The stuff that followed - Krona, Third Army - was nigh-nonsensical bloat.

Yeah, but he's too chummy with the high ups for someone to do that.

And as for now, he's writing what, two JL books, Green Lantern and Aquaman? So that makes pretty much every major DCU character is under his pen one way or the other.. There's no escape from him.

At Marvel at least if you dislike, say, Bendis or Fraction, they are usually kept to one major character or team at any given time.

[Nephrite]

To me, Geoff Johns is to DC what Jeph Loeb is to Marvel: the more books he touches, the worse things get and the more characters he ruins, and the best thing you do is either ignore what he wrote completely or put him in out of continuity books only.

He can't do that. Johns NEEDS continuity. Otherwise he has nothing to write about. His whole schtick is that wink-wink-nudge-nudge remember when you read this back when Marv Wolfman wrote it? He pretty much does nothing but the bringing characters to their 2-dimensional basics while lifting panels from better books.

The one time he had to write a book with no continuity we got Batman: Earth One where Gordon is a spineless loser that is on the take. Bullock is a reality TV star. Penguin is the mayor of Gotham that has a child-killing serial killer living in the basement of Arkham Asylum. Harvey Dent is Bruce Wayne's schoolyard bully. And his twin sister is Bruce Wayne's crush. Bruce's mom is a descendent of the Arkhams. Alfred is all about how guns are great.

He needs continuity otherwise he'd be much worse. And, true, more hilarious.

Mind you, after the Ultimatum debacle, Marvel seems to have learned their lesson with Loeb, and mostly put him in unimportant stuff. DC hasn't...

It's probably cause nothing Johns wrote ever got the backlash The Ultimatum got. Most people love what Johns is doing cause they'd be happy to read Dark Phoenix Saga or The Judas Contract forever and ever.

[red snow]

The good thing about Loeb writing Nova is that I don't care about the character anyway and any book that Loeb is writing means there's one less book he could be writing about characters I like. They could give him the whole cosmic side of Marvel - just keep him away from the Avengers and X-men.

I caught up on all new x-men the other day. Issue 2 made me angry. the time-travel makes no sense (unless they go for the easy parallel past/jean mindwipes them all before going back in time) and Beast just infuriates me. Surely fucking up the whole time-line and tell a bunch of kids they will die or become genocidal mainiacs is far worse than killing Xavier when posessed. I also find it rich how he won't kill Cyclops as that's a line he won't cross. I think messing with the time-line is worse unless you're all for passively killing people - which does seem to fit whiny Beast's MO.

Hopefully they can blame all this on Beast's mutation as he is outright lying to the young versions. At least issue 3 focused on Cyclops - I'm getting the impresson that Uncanny is going to be more my book because I guess the brotherhood won't be in All New, once uncanny launches. That leaves Beast, Kitty and Logan. Storm seems ok so far but it's only a matter of time she gets some attention from Bendis...

[instantdeath999]

I keep hearing how far Loeb has fallen. Too bad; I read Long Halloween and really enjoyed it.

On Geoff Johns, the only thing I've read by him is the first TPB of the new 52 Justice League. I enjoyed it enough.

[Lady Octarina]

I caught up on all new x-men the other day. Issue 2 made me angry. the time-travel makes no sense (unless they go for the easy parallel past/jean mindwipes them all before going back in time) and Beast just infuriates me. Surely fucking up the whole time-line and tell a bunch of kids they will die or become genocidal mainiacs is far worse than killing Xavier when posessed. I also find it rich how he won't kill Cyclops as that's a line he won't cross. I think messing with the time-line is worse unless you're all for passively killing people - which does seem to fit whiny Beast's MO.

Well, Bendis did say in an interview a couple of months ago that they only wanted to tell a story and didn't really care about the timeline complications, but would try to give an explanation just to make the angry nerds happier, or something like that. Looking back to most of what Marvel has done the past few years, yes, I agree with you the most likely is that they will simply return to their past at some point and someone (I'd think Xavier?) will erase that from their minds so everything would be alright. But that's the easy and annoying solution; I'd like to think (and hope, really) they will go for the more interesting route, being: they don't exactly return to their past, but when they go back in time knowing everything they know and being different people than the kids Beast summoned it will create an alternate timeline. That would also allow Marvel to keep telling/selling their story, so, who knows? What also leads me to believe that might be the case is that it appears there's the possibility Bendis will kill one of the original five.

At this point, though, I'd be happy if he simply started writing Magneto and Emma properly.

[red snow]

I was wondering if they may use it as a way of bringing Jean back? They could send young Jean back and she's the one who mundwipes but remembers her own experience and then we may get a timeline where she survives? To be honest this story is going to be handy to keep floating at Marvel because if they decide they need to do a reboot they can easily do one based off this. They could at least do an X-men centric reboot anyhow and test the water.

I'm still hoping the titles will build to doing a days of future past anniversary - although I suspect that will have to wait until the new film comes out in 2014.

I still think there is a huge flaw in that Bendis is writing 60s meets 2010s X-men. I can let it slide in that I can see the aesthetic angle but it really makes zero sense in terms of Marvel time. Cyclops and co are not in their 60s so having people like Ice-man swoon over TVs is somewhat exaggerated, it would be like them expressing shock over Storm teaching white kids in class or being a leader or being gobsmacked by finding out who the president is. I will cut Benids some slack if the story turns out to be good enough to overlook the time-travel but even the reason for the time-travel (putting the logic/effects of time travel aside) so far seem stupid. At least the emo x-men also admit that Beast has lost his shit so it may still pan out.