Comics VI: Sinister Six

[Sci-2]

Hey Look, Something Actually Happens in Age of Ultron #6

In Age of Ultron #1, a group of heroes led by a depressed Captain America mope around a dank basement! In Age of Ultron #2, a group of heroes led by a depressed Captain America mope around a dank basement, and Captain America has a plan! In a preview for Age of Ultron #5 we saw last week... a group of heroes led by a depressed Captain America mope around a dank basement. WTF?

Well, folks, things are about to change, because we just received a preview for Age of Ultron #6 from Marvel Comics, and it looks like the heroes have finally left the basement. Still no appearance from Ultron himself though. It is confirmed that Angela from Spawn will make a goddamn appearance in this comic, but we still have our doubts about Ultron, whom the event is named after.....

[red snow]

Maybe the unguessable ending is that it doesn't actually end? The whole thing is the equivalent of one issue. If one good thing comes of this event is that it may be the one that stops events. Then again I thought "fear itself" accomplished that task yet they still come. It's part of what is making the avengers titles so entertaining at the moment in that there is an "event" occurring and the big story there really feels important.

this weeked is DCNU52 amnesty weekend for me. Due to my standing order where my parents live, moving house and job and generally not having the time I have comics from when DC relaunched that I haven't read. The more of them I have the harder it gets to start but thanks to shit weather, lack of cash and lack of any social events now is the time to try and make a dent in them. Most of them are getting cancelled when I visit my parents in 2 weeks but I'm interested in the on the fence titles. Hopefully the train wrecks will be enjoyable.

The Shitlist is as follows; Ones in bold are likely to be cancelled when I go home unless I actually enjoy them.

Action Comics - actually hoping this works well in one sitting. Still cancelling due to the clusterfuck of creative changes.

Superman - seems a mess but maybe Lobdell can convinve me in a shit-tastic way (I liked his x-men)

Supergirl - No one ever mentions this book meaning it's maybe super mediocre but not superbad?

Aquaman - Let's see. Any good will will probably be destroyed when I discover I don't have the Justice League crossover that recently occurred.

Batman - All i know from the interviews is that this is the best comic run EVAH. And Nephrite clearly loves it :)

Detective comics - Interested to see how the Layman issues are

Batman incorporated - it's Morrison wrapping up his run and I actually don't know what happens besides the Robin thing. But it ends soon.

Batwoman - this is one where it's mainly for the art. The story will have to be bad or alternate artist too frequent to kill my interest in it.

Wonder woman - the only book that everyone seems to universally like. I have high hopes.

Flash - actually read a few of these and was entertained by the visual storytelling. Still think Barry Allen is almost as lame as Hal Jordan.

Green Lantern - was hoping the relaunch would inject more life into it. Doesn't sound like it. Well I'm leaving whatever as new teams (as of writing) are even less inspiring

Green Lantern Corps - but I hope it's at least entertaining.

Green Lantern : new guardians - it has lots of colours it's bound to be good.

Red Lanterns - I want it to be EMO I suspect I'll come out of this doubly cursing CN for cancelling the GL show

Animal Man - I've read first 5 issues already and really liked it, Shame the artist left as that was a big draw. Another one I may cancel because of creative changes though.

Swamp Thing - same as animal man. Hope the crossover works but the next team has to be inspiring for me to stick with it.

Dial H - read the first issue and enjoyed the art and dark take. Plus I'm hoping it will convince me to try Mieville's books again.

Earth-2 - Liking how it's self contained and all i know about it is that one of the characters is gay.

Worlds' Finest -Fairly self contained and supposed to be entertaining enough. Can the lack (or amount of) of power girl's costume keep the series going?

There's probably some other "gems" that I've managed to forget about which doesn't bode well. Hopefully by admitting I have 18 months worth of some of these comics is the first step in solving my problem. If you don't hear from me again you'll know why,

I'll do an update next week to see what my reactions are. Looking at the length of cancellations I probably need to think of some replacements. Avengers most likely.

EDIT:

Batman and Robin - on the chopping block because main reason was Robin being in it

Batman Odyssey - This one will be fun - probably best enjoyed after several beers.

[Nephrite]

I feel as though I'm having an argument with Captain America...

I'm sending you my Hulk to close the argument.

Speaking of stupid editors. Two days after Tony Daniel became the writer/atrist, it turns out he too is leaving but to do something biggerer and betterer (guess he must be doing trinity way unless he's jumping on the Green Lantern Merry-go-round, Daniel sounded a little miffed at Diggle though.

Yeah, he does sound miffed. Which is rich cause it seems like he planned to bolt after issue #21 anyway whether Diggle was on the book or not. Just another stellar example of DC's Planning Ahead program.

So DC announced this. How long till the cancel it cause comics are not for kids HURR DURR Batman mot be serious?

All-New X-Men preview

- Look at them actually forming a line to yell at Cyclops.

- What are the odds of Magik cutting Kitty Pryde in half? Being a smug self-righteous cow is a lot harder when you get the lightsaber treatment.

- There's going to be so much dialogue on those pages. So much pointless dialogue.

- "So I commited mutant genocide, Hank? You overreacting Panthro-wannabe bitch? It's funny how you use time-travel to teach me a lesson, but not to save a kid's life." All the dialogue you won't be seeing in the books cause then the talking would have a point instead of going on and on and on...

- XAAAAAVIEEEEER

- "You killed the professor, you murderer! And killing is Wrong! I'm going to kill you!" There, James Howlett in a nutshell.

- Shit, Logan you didn't pop your claws. Coming down with the flu or something?

- "Can't hear you Logan. With all the souls of the people your murdered it's like a rock concert over here."

- "Hey Logan. Remember when you left Utopia cause you didn't want the children to fight and be in danger? How many times were they attacked here and why haven't you packed your shit and run away some more? Why is the Danger Room installed in the toilets? What if it kills someone? Also, is this isolationist nostalgia trip of yours really better? Plus, I fucked Jean and you didn't."

- Should we expect this nothing happens stand-offs every 6 issues? They are as useful as Obi-Wan fighting Griveous in Clone Wars. It's gonna end in a stalemate, s why keep it up?

[Sci-2]

Can't recall if I mentioned reading Private Eye. Good stuff.

[red snow]

Can't recall if I mentioned reading Private Eye. Good stuff.

The concept has really wormed its way into my mind the last couple of days. That or the amount of mediocrity I've been reading this weekend has me appreciating it a lot more. I liked the implication of everything about you regarding the internet became public access. The implications for the average Joe and the movers and shakers are massive. Hopefully we'll see some more of this in the series.

I hope it gets the GN treatment at the end as it has the potential to be the kind of comic I'd be happy to show off on my shelf. With only 10 issues it's less likely to go off the boil too.

[Little Valkyrie]

eta: Confession. I am liking Vibe.

Vibe is totally adorable.

If they'd just get rid of Finch's fucking art, JLA is way more promising than JL, too. The Hawkman and Vibe page made my week, but then I love crazy and violent Hawkman like I love cake (a lot).

[red snow]

Reading the Gray/Palmiotti interview about their upcoming "batwing" run. The fun thing with these is that they are almost "what ifs". who knows whether they will ever get past their first issue.

[Sci-2]

The fun thing with these is that they are almost "what ifs". who knows whether they will ever get past their first issue.

DC is doing some interesting things, but I have to admit I don't really care about their interviews unless the words Grant Morrison are involved. I've shifted over to Marvel at this point though if you find some good stuff in those runs you were going through let us know.

- Look at them actually forming a line to yell at Cyclops.

- What are the odds of Magik cutting Kitty Pryde in half? Being a smug self-righteous cow is a lot harder when you get the lightsaber treatment.

- There's going to be so much dialogue on those pages. So much pointless dialogue.

- "So I commited mutant genocide, Hank? You overreacting Panthro-wannabe bitch? It's funny how you use time-travel to teach me a lesson, but not to save a kid's life." All the dialogue you won't be seeing in the books cause then the talking would have a point instead of going on and on and on...

- XAAAAAVIEEEEER

- "You killed the professor, you murderer! And killing is Wrong! I'm going to kill you!" There, James Howlett in a nutshell.

- Shit, Logan you didn't pop your claws. Coming down with the flu or something?

- "Can't hear you Logan. With all the souls of the people your murdered it's like a rock concert over here."

- "Hey Logan. Remember when you left Utopia cause you didn't want the children to fight and be in danger? How many times were they attacked here and why haven't you packed your shit and run away some more? Why is the Danger Room installed in the toilets? What if it kills someone? Also, is this isolationist nostalgia trip of yours really better? Plus, I fucked Jean and you didn't."

- Should we expect this nothing happens stand-offs every 6 issues? They are as useful as Obi-Wan fighting Griveous in Clone Wars. It's gonna end in a stalemate, s why keep it up?

Heheheheh. Yeah, the Avengers standoff was a bit corny though it did seem like Captain Infallible might not be 100% right. I'm just going to soak in the art and hope Bendis or someone at Marvel shows more realistic depictions of what happens when mutants start appearing all over the place.

Imagine mutants on both sides of a disputed territory or a country with conflicting religions/ideologies. You think that many people are going to worry about their mutations, or would they just point them at their long standing enemies?

eta:

If they'd just get rid of Finch's fucking art, JLA is way more promising than JL, too.

Yeah, Justice League's whole Atlantis thing was a nonstarter for me.

[red snow]

During my epic DC catch up I have been left wondering how Hal Jordan in the GL lantern can possibly tie up with the JL Hal Jordan? I gave up on JL after around issue 9 but from what I remember only the first arc was set before the "present" day. It just seems particularly sloppy when Johns is writing both stories.

Got up to issue 12 of GL and I kind of enjoyed the whole Hal and Sinestro mismatched buddy cop aspect. I was a bit more annoyed with the indigo tribe and the whole "Nok" bullshit. Also not amused that the Black hand 2 parter was concluded in an annual i don't have. Thanks a lot DC. I agree that Mahnke deserves something better. I wonder if he could get a gig over at Marvel. I'd like to see his take on the Avengers as he's shown with GL he can handle a large cast. I guess the more obvious fit would be to stick him on a marvel cosmic title but the poor guy is probably sick of designing aliens.

[Nephrite]

So managed to re-read Morrison's Action Comics. Me vs. ADD 1-0

Here are my ramblings. I wish the structure was better and not just a bunch of non-sequiturs and homophobic outburst on my part, than again Morrison didn't polish the stuff he wrote, so I can't muster the strength to make my thoughts more coherent than the book itself.

Reading it all in one go does make it gel better, probably because I don't have a month of my life between chapters to feel frustrated, but it also accentuates the flaws.

I think that one thing that Morrison failed to capture is Superman's voice. He went after that Golden Age tough talking Superman, but kind of failed to get it completely. Maybe, I should blame the art. Shuster's old stuff had that rough quality to it, and Supes had those squinty eyes, he just looked like he meant what he said. Morales' Superman looks like a brat.

The art doesn't suck

...

on the cover. Seriously, throughout the run it seems like Morales only really tries on the covers. Everything else looks like Apocalypse at Madame Tussands. Lex Luthor's weight fluctuates from panel to panel. Superman's face & height change from panel to panel. There's a scene in one of the issues where Lois Lane comments on Clark's looks while she looks like a truck run over her head (which does happen a few issues later, maybe it's foreshadowing, maybe Morales just plain sucks), while Jimmy Olsen looks like a 40-year monk from Cadfael. They make a big deal out of John Corben having a mustache, than in the next issue the stache is gone.

And the eyes, the wonky eyes. Seriously, it's like someone is holding a gun to Rags' head and saying: "Just you try to make those eyes symmetrical. Just. You. Try."

The storytelling is muddled. When Brainiac steals Metropolis we never actually see that the city is gone. There's like a torn bridge and a small hole the size of a basketball court. Apparently that's how big Metropolis is.

The dialogue rarely flows, most of the time it seems like every character is having a conversation with himself and not with all the other melting mutants standing next to him in the panel. I guess it's one way of explaining character motivations if you have a hard-on for things revealing themselves in an organic manner.

Issue #3 is when things get kind of disjointed in a way that just annoys you instead of being some shining example of non-linear storytelling. It's like a musical montage, but with no music and a fuckload of out-of-context dialogue.

There's a panel of Vyndktvx dressed as a hobo warning Clark about Krypto which now that I read the whole run really makes no fucking sense. Why say that? Why say anything? Why be a hobo?

When I was originally reading I had no problem with the two-issue fill-in. Probably cause I was tired of looking at Morales' attempts at perspective. But reading it in one go really kills the flow of the story. "Oh, hey guys! Didn't see you there. Here's a story where Superman and middle-aged receding hairline version of Legion of Super-Heroes look for stolen kryptonite that is somehow connected to the destruction of Earth. Kind of like Liv Tyler in Return of the King type deal, you understand?"

Still issue #5 is one of the high points of the run cause it has pretty cool narration by baby Kal-El's spaceship. Never mind that Kubert decides that Krypto should look like an albino panther. And that baby Kal-El should look like Kim Jong-un. Just go with it. Nobody working on this book cares about decent art, so why should you?

The Anti-Superman Army make their first appearance here and their development pretty much ends here as well. I'm not sure they have names or just color designations. And I'm still not sure why that Drekken guy hated Superman. But he sure did hate him.

The return to the Brainiac storyline continues the artwork's descent into Perspective Hell. Apparently objects that are closer to you will not appear closer.

Although, Lex's facial expression when he figures out they've been miniaturized is brilliant.

There is a pretty great scene when Lex, Lois & Jimmy find shelter in a hotel bar and run into pretty much the rest of the storyline's supporting cast. Glenmorgan, Blake & Casey. There's something really surreal about that scene. Really Twin Peaksy. Shit is going down, but these guys are like "Fuck it, let's get pissed."

Superman's own fight aboard Brainiac's ship is really dull. The whole nature versus nurture thing is dumb, done-to-death and uninspired. And Morrison should've known it. It also deals with the introduction of Superman's indestructible armor otherwise known as "Jim Lee's latest attempt at relevance" among friends.

The ending of the issue has Lois Lane asking the dumbest question ever. I mean it's relevant to the segue, but if you have one question for Superman after your city was transported into a bottle in a spaceship it sure isn't "Hey, man. So where do you chill after work?" I'm not a journalist, but as everybody in every comic book with Lois in it ever beat me over the head with it, Lois Lane is. She brings down corrupt city councilmen for breakfast. So asking questions like a schoolgirl...

Issue #9 might be the second-best of the run, which is ironic considering it doesn't even feature the main Superman, but rather deals with the Muhammad Ali/Barrack Obama hybrid from Final Crisis. It's.... (I'm aware I'm falling into that trap) oh-all-so-meta with Morrison for once actually commenting on corporate comics killing anything good that might come of it, maybe in a effort to flush the bad karma of saying-it-like-it-is in regards to Siegel & Shuster. Or not. I really don't think he cares.

After that we go back to "reality" where regular Superman gets neutered by the members of the JLA reminding him that "doing good" actually goes only if evil robots are involved. Actual change of the status quo? Fuck that. And fuck hamsters as well while you are at it.

Man, that scene really riles me up. Why even bring it up? Batman even uses it for another potshot in the next issue, which made me wish that Superman would throw him into the sun.

The run here kind of gets sidetracked (even more than when they did that two issues fill-in) with Clark Kent's "death" and "resurrection". I maybe wouldn't mind it, but when you are dealing with a limited number of issues, and hell it's a limit you yourself have imposed, than maybe having detours that then get resolved by somebody making a wish for it to go away isn't the best use of space.

Nimrod the Hunter seems like a cool villain, but his confrontation with Superman is done in a way that if they ever made it in film it would look like something out of COPS with a lot of shouting, accidental gunfire and unintended injuries all done in a small cramped room.

It would work perfectly as a sketch on Robot chicken, though.

The Zero issue is fun, even with Ben Oliver's decision to have every fifth panel be just silhouettes.

#13 is the high point of the run telling a story that wouldn't feel out of place in the pages of All-Star Superman.

Unfortunately all this stuff leads to the final storyline starting in #14 and it feels like that thing wasn't properly built towards to. Metaleks had one unexplained appearance before this (not counting cameos in Morrison's Batman) but here Superman knows all about them. You know. Be cause.

Morales manages to do a whole issue without Cafu and Brad Walker helping out, but I'm not sure it's a good thing. We don't get to compare the art to better stuff, but we do have more time to absorb just how weird and melted everything looks. Panels are cramped, which explains why Superman's size changes all the time. How would you fit him in there otherwise? Surely not through planning ahead? Don't be silly. Like I don't think there's a single panel of Superman just flying without a perpetual aura of awkwardness to it.

Ellie the astronaut is still a horrible person. Oh, he promised to save you? I don't think his words of comfort to you in a dire situation where sharp-toothed angels are eating metal outside your doors are the thing you should be concentrating on. You should concentrate on the murderous winged freaks. Fuck Ellie.

After the Mars issue the things are on the way to kick into high gear unfortunately it comes to screeching halt when the Legion of Super-Heroes Geriatric Edition (really DC how hard is it to figure this out? We like the Legion as teens) that waste everybody's time and do fuck all. For a bunch of time-traveling idiots they sure show up "too late" way too often. It's time-travel, just... you know never mind. This whole story wouldn't be one bit different if these guys weren't in it. Ferlin would still say his name backwards and done.

Speaking of Ferlin, underdeveloped or what? He shows up in the last issue, while before that we only saw him once in a picture frame. Hell, when I was reading it the first time, I thought Ferlin was that girl Clark was checking out while approaching Mrs. Nxly. At the end I felt really bad for the guy. Mxy was really the shittiest of dads ever. Kind of puts the whole story in a totally different light. A light of perpetual time-traveling incest where you are your father, brother & son at the same time.. In glorious 5D.

So in the end I give the run a... good. The shitty art and Morrison inability to sometimes slow down and polish things up a bit prevent it from being great.

[red snow]

I'd forgot all about this little episode with St Xavier. Sometimes I wonder if an in control Cyclops could almost be forgiven for killing Charley.

[Sci-2]

homophobic outburst on my part

Huh? (Nice review of Action by the way. I look back and I realized I didn't want a complex 5-D story, I wanted a down to earth Superman tale. When I evaluate the what Morrison actually wanted to do, I think it is interesting how you can construct linear storylines out of a decent amount of it.)

[red snow]

I think the disappointing thing about action and superman post relaunch is that he still has the same image but is maybe a bit more cocky now as well. I remember the early hype for the comic making a big deal about how he was going to be more relatable but i didn't really get that.

It's pretty worrying that Lobdell is the locked in superman writer these days. Since no-one wants to write more than 2 issues of action comics these days. I bet there's one person they could get to take over "action". Orson scott card...

[GallowKnight]

I'd forgot all about this little episode with St Xavier. Sometimes I wonder if an in control Cyclops could almost be forgiven for killing Charley.

Hell, I could forgive that. If I had the opportunity to forget all about Vulcan I would take it.

[Nephrite]

Huh? (Nice review of Action by the way. I look back and I realized I didn't want a complex 5-D story, I wanted a down to earth Superman tale. When I evaluate the what Morrison actually wanted to do, I think it is interesting how you can construct linear storylines out of a decent amount of it.)

Outburts. It was a joke. I'm not homophobic. I simply ignore gay people. Just like I ignore women and all the races that are not white.

Funnily enough, when All-Star Superman was announced I was hoping it's gonna be something akin to this. Crazy wild ride like that JLA Classified arc except with just Superman. What we got was much more subdued and meditative.

I truly feel like this would've been much more bearable if someone like Cam Stewart was on the art. Or Sprouse. They had him on back-ups to the point it felt like they were rubbing it in are faces.

[Sci-2]

Outburts. It was a joke. I'm not homophobic. I simply ignore gay people. Just like I ignore women and all the races that are not white.

Oh I thought you were referencing some past event, like that guy who thought Morrison was having Superman say "god damn".

[Lady Octarina]

Uncanny Avengers #5: so, Cap and Wanda is a thing again? Let me go buy some fireworks. :bowdown:

Some of the characters seemed a bit OOC, even when compared to the previous issues, but maybe it was just the different settings. Too large a cast to properly work on 20 pages a month, though. At first I thought it was completely pointless to just bring the Grim Reaper into the story this soon (btw, I thought he couldn't hurt Wonder Man, and vice-versa?), but now I'm wondering if it was to just put Wanda and Rogue away from the spotlights as Cap wanted now that Rogue seems to have killed the Reaper in front of cameras, but not before he announced Wanda's powers to change reality and bring back people from the dead? Or was it just to add some more basic tension to the team, if Rogue killed Simon's brother? Anyway, this was a disconnected issue, somehow, and what the hell does Remender have against Wanda, to make her the damsel in distress three or four times in five issues? (well, everyone has something against her these days, but having her be the one who needs rescuing every time seems a bit of a stretch) And Havok's campaign against the use of the word "mutant" seems to go against 50 years of X-Men history...

Age of Ultron #3: interesting, I was about to mention this was the first Ultron story I read where we don't seem to have Pym, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision or Wonder Man in a central place, and then I saw the last page. I imagine this was the Barton Fink moment Bendis was promising?

Young Avengers #3: another excellent issue; I love what McKelvie does with the art, and Gillen's dialogues are as brilliant as usual. Plus Loki is Tyrion. :thumbsup: Young Avengers is certainly on my top 5 of best current Marvel comics.

Fantastic Four #5AU: as with everything on AoU, it certainly would have had more of an impact if we believed they would stay dead for a while. Still, that a great way to die, the three of them. I'll admit Reed's message brought some tears to my eyes, though. :blushing:

[Sci-2]

Uncanny Avengers 5 - I liked how things unfolded. Things should not always go right when battles like this happen. Only wish it'd been Captain Infallible in the hot seat.

Young Avengers continues to be intriguing. Love, love, love the art.

East Meets West looks like a new, interesting setting from Hickman. Fantasy + Scifi + Western. Count me in.

Unwritten is swinging up toward a climax again now that we've had some set up issues. Good stuff.

Got some more books, will mention the good ones in a bit.

[Nephrite]

BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 - Oh, look a Grant Morrison non-linear comic that isn't a chore to read. Not much happens here, sort of a breather after the last issue, but still pretty good.

EAST OF WEST #1 - How fuckin' good was this, ha? Pretty fuckin' good.

I, VAMPIRE #18 - There's so much people dying then getting resurrected than dying again in this thing, it's getting pretty obvious Fialkov is rushing through his entire plan for this series so he can cram it into 2 issues.

UNWRITTEN #47 - Did not see that last page coming. Than again I did read in at 1 AM.

SUPERMAN #18 - I was really looking forward to Kuder's artwork in this thing, so of course DC let me down. There's two other guys besides Kuder doing art in here and I wish I could forget about them.

Lobdell writing New Gods goes about exactly as you'd expect it to go, but let's blame it on Berganza & Idelson for being a the shittiest editors in recent DC history and even allowing Lobdell to fuck with Azzarello's plan for these characters.

GREEN HORNET #1 - Mark Waid adds another ongoing series to his workload and he delivery yet again. My only exposure to Green hOrnet was seeing some pages in an old comicbook documentary that was on TV when I was a kid, but this was pretty good for new readers.

[red snow]

Not that we hadn't worked this out already but this interview with Joe Kelly about quitting X-men while Harras was EIC nails things. We all know what happened to Marvel when they essentially had the editors writing the book. They almost imploded until someone saw the sense of getting someone who was a creator minded involved. Hopefully DC will eventually fire Harras and get someone else on board. Not sure who though. Maybe they'll offer it to Waid at some point?