Comics IV

[red snow]

Flew through the first two omnibus editions of Sandman, and just downloaded the 3rd. Have to say, this new iPad has totally renewed by love of comic books. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed them, but the iPad is the perfect delivery model for me and I have just torn through a bunch of great stuff over the last week or so.

Yeah - I can imagine am ipad is ideal. I got back into marvel mainly off the back of a comic reader on my samsung phone - but the ipad seems the ideal size.

[Switchback]

Yeah - I can imagine am ipad is ideal. I got back into marvel mainly off the back of a comic reader on my samsung phone - but the ipad seems the ideal size.

It really is. I'd tried getting back into comics a year or so ago, after I got a Kindle Fire. And they have this nifty option in all the book apps now that lets you focus on individual panes. Which works fine for what it is, and is totally necessary for the smaller reader-sized tablets, but it just wasn't holding my interest. Now with the iPad I can read the entire page without needing to cut off any of the artwork in order to focus on the panels. It's basically just like reading a paper book, only the colors pop a lot more. It's great.

[red snow]

New Avengers 1 felt a lot more like Black Panther 1 and I'd actually be quite happy to read a Black Panther series by Hickman. The downside is that we don't get much on the New Avengers although I do like Black Panther's POV on the rest of the team. My impression from the threat was some-kind of Galactus type entity but possibly one that devours Earths from parallel worlds. I guess that would make for a pretty serious threat.

I hope they can get Jock to do interiors every now and then as his covers are excellent and give off a great sense of shady goings on from the illuminati. Interested to see where the story goes but is already feeling very much like a "wait for the trade" book.

[Nephrite]

SUPERMAN #15 - Previously on Superman Z... I have no idea, cause I'm not actually reading the other parts of this crossover. Supergirl and Superboy, that is. I guess Supergirl acts like an irrational douche and who wants to be exposed to that crap? And Superboy actually appears here and since Lobdell is old school we get plenty of exposition telling me exactly how the characters found themselves where they are now.

And now they are visiting Lex Luthor in prison cause H'el (or if you like Vegeta or Raditz) is calling squaters rights on Superman's Fortress. That skirt-wearing asshole!

Anyway, what Lobdell does in this issue is a modification of the Lex-Superman dynamic. Instead of the usual fuck-you-alien-humanity-must-reach-the-stars-on-its-own cliche, Lex actually respects Superman as an almost-equal. He's got a kind of Sherlock vibe going with the whole "Yeah, your talents are considerable, I guess. Not as much as mine, but cool" thing. Lex's technobabble sounds like vintage Holmes. If he ever talked about using the Solar system to travel back in time.

Actually, the prison Lex is in, was designed by Lex cause Superman challenged him to build a prison even he can't escape from. And if he builds one he can escape from and does it then that means Superman wins.

It's an insane Silver Age logic that at the same time makes no sense and makes all the sense in the world. Touché, Lobdell. Touché.

Warning: Cyborg appears in this book, but don't hold it against it.

BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 - A pretty good issue where the bad guys up the ante and shit hits the fan. Damian is awesome as always, and hell Jason Todd is in this thing so I don't have to read Red Hood & the Outlaws. Everybody wins.

I, VAMPIRE #15 - Well, Andrea Sorentino is gone. But we get Denis Calero to do his own riff on the whole Is this the real life, is this just really good photoshop filters? It's good, but this book is moving at a break-neck pace. I guess Fialkov never thought they'll live to see issue 15 (hell, I never though this will be one of the best DC books), so instead of the old slow burn he just went for it. Good guy.

PUNK ROCK JESUS #6 - The one where Jesus is an insufferable little prick. I'm not really sure what this comicbook wanted to be. It juggled too many balls. I actually laughed out loud when the Jimmi Hendrix of drumming gave a moving speech. That was his only dialogue in the whole series and I'm suppose to care?

INVINCIBLE #99 - The comicbook in which Robert Kirkman answers that age old question that plagues mankind since the dawn of time:

What if Ra's al Ghul was a dinosaur?

PROPHET #32 - Brandon Graham takes a break this issue and Simon Roy flies solo in a story about a female Prophet and honestly if you didn't read the credits you wouldn't even notice.

NEW AVENGERS #1 - Man, I know nothing about Black Panther. He's like part Green Lantern, part Mr. Miracle, part Batman or something. Also, some henchmen have what are basically lightsaber katanas. I guess that's okay now that Disney owns everything.

Bonus points: no Beast, yet.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Manhattan Projects #8- Plot synopsis:

Evil, super-intelligent computer FDR goes on murderous rampage following orders by an evil cabal that includes Truman, a Mexican wrestler and some ancient Egyptian guy, and fights a robotic-arm Werner Von Braun and a slightly dumber evil alternate reality counterpart of Albert Einstein.

If that doesn't make you interested, you might as well give up comics. Or life.

New Avengers #1: I'm intrigued by the bad guys, but it was still too slow of a start, specially considering Hickman had already given some focus to T'challa back in FF.

Daredevil: End of Days #4: On this one, stuff finally happens, although not that much. At least looks like we'll learn more about what Mapone, considering the ending.

All New X-men #5: Or the one in which Beast turns into a...gorilla or something? It's refreshing to see Bendis not being afraid to show Logan as a dirty, shameless killer of children, who's more than willing to do it again- no more of this Saint Logan crap from Aaron's ridiculous book. Although this continues to treat Cyclops as the new Red Skull- but of course, Marvel REALLY expected fans to think Cyclops was right at the end of AvX, right, Breevort?

Also, bonus points for Bendis to see that Xavier was also a dirty bastard that would mindwipe everyone without a second thought- no saint Chuck here, unlike Remender's pathetic take on him.

Morbius #1- It's not Twilight, for sure- it's an adult angst book, instead of a teenage angst one. Not a bad book, but nothing exciting to see here, moving on.

Iron Man #5- A slight improvement, but still this book hasn't done anything new with character. Looks like Danger and Unit will be showing up soon, and perhaps not having an Extremis related arc forced upon him will improve this book, so I'm giving it an issue or two, but not more if this doesn't improve considerably.

[Lady Octarina]

All-New X-Men #5: you may hate Beast, but, oh my stars and garters, you have to admit his psychic conversation with himself and Jean was the best thing on this issue. I have to say, now that I look at it, Beast's new looks does seem like a more natural way to go from his second mutation than the sexy lion third. And I can only hope, in the end, Xavier doesn't simply wipe out their minds when they return to the future and we can be rewarded with an alternate timeline telling how everything would go if they had the knowledge they will have now.

The way Wolverine was portrayed, though, basically ignores all that Uncanny X-Force arc about killing people before they commit the crime. But who cares, at least Kitty is in charge now.

New Avengers #1 does look promising, which is not that hard since it features some of Marvel's best characters - and some of the most annoying. A pity, though, that the Black Panther is not among my favorites, but it could be worse, he could be Tony Stark.

I am not very familiar with Morbius (really, I think the only time I saw anything he appeared in was some Spider-Man cartoon when I was a child), but I liked this first issue, which has this rare quality of working well enough on its own instead of something that can only be truly enjoyed in trade.

[Nephrite]

I flipped through All-New X-Men and really it's kind of shit. Beast's big medical problem is basically a McGuffin. We get 4 issues of "his mutation is killing him!" and then we get some techno-babble, bunch of random scribbles with numbers and greek letters on a wall, then Young Beast connects some tubes and voila he's cured! I know Bendis is not an expert in genetics, but what the fuck was wrong with him? Bendis liked Wolverine-hair Beast the most, but Hickman mocked him during one of the Architects meetings so he had to show who's the boss?

If he wanted to make Beast look like his head shrunk to half its size he could've just used some voodoo curse or a shrink ray. Not waste 3 months of Stuart Immonen's life just of give Beast thumbs again.

The best part comes afterwards during Wolverine's frankly amazing "Let's vote if I should stab a 15-year old! Show of hands people! Come on! Ignore the children around me! I got the knives in my hands! It will be over in a second! I'll kill him, I swear!" speech. Logan, I know that you know that time-travel doesn't work that way, so maybe you should use your misplaced anger over never getting inside Jeannie's pants onto something else. It's not Scott's fault you smell of beer and look attractive only to lonely chicks that are into furries.

But, then Beast shows up with his "Mutation is stabilized" BS and then says that the kids should go back home now. Which begs the questions: Did he bring them to show BAMF Scott the error of his ways? Or did he bring them out of totally selfish reasons and fucked up Bendis-logic that a younger version of himself is actually smarter than him?

Cause if it's the latter, then he only should've brought Young (Somehow Superior) Beast. To minimize the whole "I'm fucking with the time-space continuum for personal gain!"

Man, Bendis sure did plot this thing out.

But it becomes a moot point (and it's not like Beast cares, he got what he wanted) cause Jean Grey then decides to go turbocunt on everyone's ass and gives a speech that reminds me of this guy. Sorry, this guy. Remember him? Mr. "Why isn't continuity as perfect as it was when I read the books as a kid?"

It seems that Bendis really wanted to write the Original 5 but those pesky decades of continuity got in the way.

[red snow]

Not that Marvel kept any of Morrison's ideas but I thought the logic of Beast was that he was devolving? first human, then more ape-like then cat like. I'm not sure what the evolutionary tree is but his next mutation should have been dog, then maybe koala (I'd like a Koala-beast) then lizard, fish etc until he winds up an amoeba. What we get is random shit - I wouldn't have mibded if he returned to an earlier appearance and retcon the devolution mutation. But small headed monkey thing doesn't fit.

And they are seriously discussing killing young cyclops to get current one? I still want to know what they think Cyclops has done. He killed Xavier (under posession) and reignited the mutant gene. You'd think he'd killed thousands/millions.

How the hell do these architect summits work as you'd think Hickman's nose would bleed if he saw how x-men is being run. I guess he's lucky that he doesn't have to be at x-men summits. I suppose it's just Bendis throw shit at a wall and seeing what sticks,

EDIT: an interview regarding the change.

I guess I'll let them off in the sense they are choosing to retcon the de-evolving thing and that this is him moving back up the evolutionary chain.

"As for changing him, it was something Brian wanted to do from day one. The only thing we didn’t have hammered out was exactly what he’d look like. That was where Stuart came in!"

That and the fact Brian hadn't figured out a logical way of working it into the plot too.

[Sci-2]

So the O5 are staying? I don't get how the timeline didn't change when Beast kidnapped the kids if what Wolverine is saying about killing Cyclops is true.

Does the book explain any of this?

[Nephrite]

I still want to know what they think Cyclops has done.

He killed Xavier, and Xavier was a saint, goddammit!

You'd think he'd killed thousands/millions.

That was Jean. But they were aliens so it doesn't matter.

How the hell do these architect summits work as you'd think Hickman's nose would bleed if he saw how x-men is being run. I guess he's lucky that he doesn't have to be at x-men summits. I suppose it's just Bendis throw shit at a wall and seeing what sticks,

I'm pretty sure Hickman doesn't care. It's not his job to fight for justice for fictional characters. He is not the patron sait of preventing character assassination. He's the patron saint of concentric circles. This is the extent of his involvement.

An I'm pretty sure those writers retreats are just excuses for back-patting summits where they congratulate each other on how smart they are before going to a strip-club. Kind of like the modern Ocean 11 movies, but for fat people.

So the O5 are staying? I don't get how the timeline didn't change when Beast kidnapped the kids if what Wolverine is saying about killing Cyclops is true.

Does the book explain any of this?

No. Bendis doesn't care about plot holes and shit like that. Get real. We should congratulate him that he managed to write 5 issues without Luke Cage. He's probably punching himself in the groin with his custom-made Power-Man doll as we speak.

Logan is an idiot. Killing young Scott would change nothing.

Basically, there's now a alternate timeline where the O5 just disappeared one sunny afternoon. Proffessor X never got the chance to tell Jean his feeling for her.

[red snow]

He killed Xavier, and Xavier was a saint, goddammit!

That was Jean. But they were aliens so it doesn't matter.

I'm pretty sure Hickman doesn't care. It's not his job to fight for justice for fictional characters. He is not the patron sait of preventing character assassination. He's the patron saint of concentric circles. This is the extent of his involvement.

An I'm pretty sure those writers retreats are just excuses for back-patting summits where they congratulate each other on how smart they are before going to a strip-club. Kind of like the modern Ocean 11 movies, but for fat people.

No. Bendis doesn't not care about plot holes and shit like that. Get real. We should congratulate him that he managed to write 5 issues without Luke Cage. He's probably punching himself in the groin with his custom-made Power-Man doll as we speak.

Logan is an idiot. Killing young Scott would change nothing.

Basically, there's now a alternate timeline where the O5 just disappeared one sunny afternoon. Proffessor X never got the chance to tell Jean his feeling for her.

So there is no in-continuity reason why Cyclops is so evil it would have been better to kill him at birth.

I don't think Hickman cares that much about the characters but it does seem as though he cares a lot about plotting things out and seeing the way BEndis is approaching X-men is the thing that would cause him nose-bleeds,

That tweet is funny though in the sense Hickman is candid about his feelings towards Bendis and how Bendis ALWAYS gets his way even when no-one else agrees with him.

The fun thing with Beast is going to be seeing how long it takes New Avengers and all the other places he appears to be in-line with the new version. Given ANXM's schedule it could be a long time before the other books catch up

[Sci-2]

So there is no in-continuity reason why Cyclops is so evil it would have been better to kill him at birth.

He pulled meteors from the sky and slammed them into the earth...just because. I was reading early issues of Remender's Uncanny X-Force run a few days ago and found the part where they form this X-force without Cyke's knowledge as Cyke had decided he didn't want any more covert murders.

There are a lot of things like that, where Cyke comes off as a reasonable man forced to navigate through impossible choices.

The whole evil-Cyke thing Bendis keeps trying to push seems incredible silly. It reminds me of Bendis's Dr. Strange being corrupted by his use of dark magic that never seemed all that dark but cost him his title as Sorcerer Supreme.

[red snow]

He pulled meteors from the sky and slammed them into the earth...just because. I was reading early issues of Remender's Uncanny X-Force run a few days ago and found the part where they form this X-force without Cyke's knowledge as Cyke had decided he didn't want any more covert murders.

There are a lot of things like that, where Cyke comes off as a reasonable man forced to navigate through impossible choices.

The whole evil-Cyke thing Bendis keeps trying to push seems incredible silly. It reminds me of Bendis's Dr. Strange being corrupted by his use of dark magic that never seemed all that dark but cost him his title as Sorcerer Supreme.

The meteor thing would make sense but then there was an alonso interview stating the general public see cyclops as a good guy in the sense he temporarily fixed a lot of problems and that the problem was the heroes know what a villain cyclops actually is. But if the general public within MU feel this way then it leaves me thinking the only bad thing he did was a)kill St. Xavier B) disobey the Avengers and c) take a huge risk on being right.

I do agree that a lot of things boil down to "cos Bendis says so". In many ways Bendis is like a real world god wherein what he says becomes reality, regardless of logic, A powerful man whose powers reside thankfully within fiction.

[Switchback]

Are there any good space opera comics? Would love to get into a serious 'politics and shit gettin blown up in space' kind of comic.

[Little Valkyrie]

Are there any good space opera comics? Would love to get into a serious 'politics and shit gettin blown up in space' kind of comic.

The modern Marvel Cosmic run is space opera, started by Giffen and carried on by Abnett and Lanning (popularly known as DnA). I think they're doing a new space opera sort of thing right now, too.

[red snow]

Are there any good space opera comics? Would love to get into a serious 'politics and shit gettin blown up in space' kind of comic.

Yeah. the DnA series of series are probably the best bet out of modern comics. Green Lantern might fit the bill but it's more guys flying around than spaceships and tends to go back to earth a lot and get obsessed with colours.

The Star War comics at Dark Horse are supposed to be very good at the moment.

[haLobEnder]

Gah! Just saw the design for the new Beast. Not liking. Not liking at all.

Enough with the mutations already. Say what you want about how great Grant Morrison's run was, but I'm never going to forgive him for this secondary mutations BS.

Really sorry to hear about Peter David having a stroke. Sad news at any time of the year, but especially around the holidays. Here's hoping for a swift and full recovery.

His blog (currently being maintained by his wife) requests that people consider supporting him by purchasing his books from Crazy 8 Press as he sees a greater portion of the profits from there than from his comic writing.

[Galactus]

Yeah. the DnA series of series are probably the best bet out of modern comics. Green Lantern might fit the bill but it's more guys flying around than spaceships and tends to go back to earth a lot and get obsessed with colours.

The Star War comics at Dark Horse are supposed to be very good at the moment.

There's also that weirdo thing. Prophet? Based on a Liefeld comic but reads more like Moebius (Liefeld isn't actually involved)

[red snow]

Gah! Just saw the design for the new Beast. Not liking. Not liking at all.

Enough with the mutations already. Say what you want about how great Grant Morrison's run was, but I'm never going to forgive him for this secondary mutations BS.

Really sorry to hear about Peter David having a stroke. Sad news at any time of the year, but especially around the holidays. Here's hoping for a swift and full recovery.

His blog (currently being maintained by his wife) requests that people consider supporting him by purchasing his books from Crazy 8 Press as he sees a greater portion of the profits from there than from his comic writing.

I like the rejected designs - especially as I like to think they were genuinely in the running given how crap the actual version is. I think "diva BEast" would have been an interesting case of his mutation reflecting his current personality.

At first, I thought it seemed like shameless promotion for Peter David but then I realised that he lives in a country with no free health-care and I dread to think whether Marvel provides health-care or not. I suspect you need to be an architect for that to happen. Now I think it's a pretty sensible idea and like his wife says it should be win-win for his fans.

There's also that weirdo thing. Prophet? Based on a Liefeld comic but reads more like Moebius (Liefeld isn't actually involved)

I was thinking of mentioning that but from where I'm currently at there doesn't seem to be much in terms of spaceships fighting. Although it seems to be getting there. Definitely worth a try for the more open-minded space-opera fan. It does have a very european flavour to it and reminds me of a really bizarre version of John Carter.