Prep Time Posse

2009-08-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

Reviews of the Week (RotW) by Phenompyrus

I decided it would be a good idea to utilize our blog by posting my weekly reviews here as much as I can. Let's get the ball rolling:

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
I missed picking up the first series from the get go, but always heard that it was one of Marvel's best and most consistent books for years. So I was not going to pass this up, even though I still have a bad taste in my mouth with Ultimatum and the main continuity's One More Day. That said, the results of this one were not so bad. If there is one perfect match in comicdom for a writer and character, its Bendis and Spider-Man. He knows how to write the perfect Peter Parker, no matter what version it is. The art makes this seem like a non-television cartoon, part anime. I like the idea of new characters showing up so early too, so let's hope Marvel keeps things fresh with their new Ultimate Comics.

Ultimate Comics Avengers #1
Since I missed Spider-Man and X-Men on the first go around with Ultimate Marvel, I made sure to be there to pick up The Ultimates. As it turned out, it and its sequel were some of the best comic stories I've ever read to this day. Let us forget the horror that was Ultimates 3. How Jeph Loeb still has a job is a wonder to me, but that's a story for a different day. This first issue is very similar to the first issues of Millar's first 2 volumes, and yet again features a focus on Captain America. The characters are back to form, to Hawkeye still being a badass, Cap not missing a beat even though he got his ass kicked by Red Skull, Fury still in charge even though he's not, and Tony being a casual and cool drinker. The art is superb too, capturing some each of Hitch and Mad! (the only good slightly good and redeemable thing about volume 3). The future looks and sounds promising too, with new versions of Wasp, Hulk, War Machine, and Black Widow coming, as well as seeing Ultimate versions of Punisher and Blade. Good start to a book that Marvel desperately needed to revive to its original form.

Uncanny X-Men #514
It is no secret around OKP that I am a huge X-Men fan. I love almost everything from Marvel that has to do with the team. The past few X events have been pretty great, and this one is still delivering. I'm not sure what to think of Emma's 'defection', and I really hope it doesn't cause any long term problems, b/c she might just be the best X-Man of the past few years. Her relationship with Cyclops is much better than that between he and Jean. Dodson lightens things up while keeping it pretty with his art, but the real star here is Matt, who absolutely understands how to write this book. He brings them up to date by also hooking them up with classic devices, such as the little character power profiles. I always think how I could make certain books better, and with this one, I don't know if I could. I hope this creative team (yes including Greg Land) sticks around for some time. Marvel promises big changes, but we all know that just means a lead in to something else. I just hope that it doesn't disappoint a la Secret Invasion.

Blackest Night #2
Let's get to some DC. I read more Marvel overall, but this, GL, the new Doom Patrol, and Batman & Robin are also in the rotation, and they are every bit as good as Marvel's bulk of my reading list. DC knows how to tell a crossover story with all the right points of continuity. This story found the perfect loophole to bring back all the dead characters they want without actually bringing them back. Will any of them stick around? I don't know, but it's a little trickery they have used to get to this point. Will Bruce Wayne come and save the day for his return? Next issue looks to be a doozy. If they bring anyone back, let's do another JLA with the big 7 and Jim Lee drawing.

Walking Dead #64
COTW. This one has been slacking until this issue, which re-established it as the best monthly title that I read. That last panel gave me goosebumps as I said to myself 'Hell yeah!' Part of me feels that it would be a good idea to tell how the plague came to be, but its lasted this long on its own 2 legs without, and that's how it should be. Rick, Carl, Abraham, and Michonne should never die, although with all the crazy stuff that has happened so far, it might be hard not for Kirkman.

Wolverine

2009-04-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Weapon Excreble

Cork Kneivel film rating: Kneivel wipes out after 2-1/2 school buses.A friend of a friend of a pal of a buddy of a friend of a mate of another guy’s cousin’s barber’s homey had it downloaded onto his laptop in about 10 different 10-minute segments. He plugged it into his big screen to show me, and since he knows I’m a comic book head and a fan of the first 2 X-Men flicks (the 3rd one never happened in my world), probably figured he was giving me something special. Well, he was…and he wasn’t.First off, I’ve never seen an unfinished bootleg version of a film about a month before its release date. I have no idea when this cut was actually downloaded, or what percent of the completed project it would be at, but I was really surprised to see just how much is handled with CGI and the like. Almost every scene had something still unpolished: Wolverine’s claws, the sky, wires on a guy who just did, like, a grllion kick flips through the air, etc. One scene had me chuckling as it was all low-budget 3d computer rendering of a jet screaming through dark sky, just greys and blacks and cylinders and boxes representing the jet and buildings, with a fancified scroll along the bottom reading “Atlanta, Georgia”.The movie though? The movie was…well, it just was. It’s biggest crime is how pedestrian it is. You take arguably the most unique and recognizable comic book character, easily the most popular X-Man, a character of nebulous and ever expanding backstory, and somehow make the thing uninteresting. The credit sequence is the exception here as it takes us from 1845 to the recent past (Vietnam era and after) and shows us how Wolverine and his half-brother (Live Schreiber as Victor aka Sabretooth) are the best they are at what they do. And what they do is fight in United States conflicts abroad. Sabretooth, both in the credits sequence as well as the first ¾ of the movie is the more interesting character here. His fighting style, his animalism, and the dark brooding is used better, as well as being a more recognizable rendering of Wolverine than the conflicted catch-phrasin’ pretty-boy Jackman plays him as.I’m not too up on the Weapon X storyline but you got:the guy who played Sam Adams in the HBO John Adams miniseries. He was also the lead vampire in 30 Days of Night as Colonel StrykerDominic Monaghan (Mery from LOTR/Charlie from LOST) – as a guy who can fiddle with electrical things??? as Agent Zero – a guy who’s very deadly with gunsWill.I.Am as a cowboy teleporter named JohnKevin Durand (the big Canadian guy in everything) as Frederick J. Dukes/The BlobAnd the best piece of casting was Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool – this one I would pay to see and there’s a well done scene with him taking on a room full of gunmen with his bladesGambit and Silver Fox also show up. Gambit for a lame 3-way fight with Logan and Victor. They also have Sabretooth chase down a teenaged Scott Summers. One of the better action sequences and one that will be a “wow” factor when its all finished is a scene with Logan taking on a helicopter carrying Agent Zero. Sorry if I spoiled anything, I don’t think I revealed anything important not easily available anywhere else. I don’t think this film will do too well, partly because I think the super-hero fad is dying out and partly because the film’s just not very good.

GEMS

2009-02-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

How many of us have them?!?

GEMS...ones we can depend on...

Now I’m sure all Posse members have their favorite stores, and that we all could probably rank them in order. I’m sure we all have our least favorites too (because ANY store w/ comics is still a “favorite”, right). But how many of us have a "GEM”?

I do. In true GEM fashion it’s not the place I keep my saver ((regular pull)) list. It’s not the super-duper glitzy comic-o-rama semi-chain that has more than one location in my city. It’s not even the place around the corner from my house that I hit up on days when I get some spare time and dough to waste. It’s none of those.

But I probably wouldn’t want to write about any of them.

As I define it: a GEM is a building in which I find the greatest deals in the history of the universe. Others may define GEM differently, and that’s their prerogative. Word to B. Brown.

I only tell two kinds of people about my GEM:

· Those whose collections, and collecting appetites, I respect but they DO NOT collect anything I might be after
· “Squares” ((People who have no use for comic books))
· My PTP brethren!!

My GEM is called GREAT ESCAPE GAMES, and is located at 1250 Howe Ave. here in Sacramento, CA. I shit you not, it is invisible from either of the two frontage roads you use to get to it and faces the back parking lot of an adjacent apartment complex. I am not kidding, still no shitting going on here, I once heard an employee describe to someone, over the phone, that in order to find the place once they got to the parking lot they should “pretend you’re going to go dump a couch”!!! I mean is that GEM material or not?

So what is so great about this place, aside from being utterly invisible to all who drive past it? Well, it’s not “really” a comic book shop. Nay. Nay I say. This store is probably about 10% comic book and 90% gamer. Not video-gamer, nay again, this place is for the serious “role player”. This place abounds with Worlds of Warcraft, Magic: the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, D&D, and HeroClix ((the one I’d ever consider getting into)). They also have a shit load of those kind of board games that you’ve never heard of, cost $69.99, and have a baker’s dozen or so stickers on the front proclaiming that this game swept each category of the 2002 European “Toy of the Year” Awards. The store is also unique in that only the front 25% or so is devoted to retail. Pass through the make-shift 4’X9’ hole in the wall and you find yourself in Gamer Tournament Paradise. Table after table of acne-riddled sexual frustration can be found there 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, tackle boxes and expansion pack decks at the ready. Some tables are devoid of people but are covered with “terra”, half demolished castles, miniature houseplants representing the forest, miniature cacti representing the desert, and brown and green painted Styrofoam. The people watching in here is choice **smuah**

However, as fun as all of that may be for a couple of minutes, the true beauty to this GEM is to be found in the long boxes. For it is there, my fellow POSSE members, that you will find laminated 8.5X11 sheets of paper stating:

“Dollar Boxes – Buy 5 get 1 FREE, Buy 10 get 3 FREE”

“So what?” You may say out loud to noon in particular as you read that. Or you might scream it at some unsuspecting neighbor, and if you did you should now apologize. I’ll wait. Well, Mr./Mrs. So What, I’ll tell you “so what”:

In the 25 or so long boxes, stacked in such a way that there’s 10 on a table top ((2 rows of 5 back-to-back)) and 10 below, with another 5 set off in the corner, that comprise this discount comic book bonanza…you can find last week's books!! That’s right…that’s how they do around GREAT ESCAPE GAMES…they have the smallest shelf set up for the books that come out that week only. Anything older than that gets moved straight to the dollar bin section. I am still crapping you negative. Negatory are the B.M.s here, my friends. Not only is it possible to stumble upon that long sought after Action or Detective Comics you’ve been looking for since ’03, but its highly probable that you’ll stumble upon that long sought after LAST. WEEK’S. BOOK. And won’t that have been well worth the hunt?

It has been tres lovely, folks.

And I do mean tres.

For example: I only recently discovered that the current Ultimate Spider-man team is Bendis and Immonen, both guys whose works I find I tend to appreciate above most others. I had about 20 or so issues to back track and collect if I wanted the entire body of work. It’s a pricey situation, but that’s the way I have to have things. Well, thanks to the GEM known as G.E.G., I found 10 of those 20 for $10, and then got an additional 3 books for free…just on G.P.!

Here’s my haul from Feb. 17th, 2009, now mind, I paid $12.83 for this little bundle:

JLA - #29
JSA - ANNUAL #1
JSA - #12, 14, 15
Punisher MAX - #24, 29, 55, 62
New Avengers - #1 (3 copies – Imma see if I can peddle them elsewhere and for what value. There’s still 3 more #1s in the bin)
Amazing Spider-Man - #585
Ultimate Spider-man - #130
Daredevil - #115

EYE POOP EWE NON. (All palindrome style on that ass).

That’s just a little taste of how I feel about it, a little taste of why this place deserves to be written about.

What about you? Any GEMs in your area? Give ‘em some shine. What do you like about them?

My Love Is No Longer Blind

2009-02-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

The following statement has been very hard for me to come to terms with, let alone for me to write down as my current formal position on the matter, but I must speak the truth. Prep Time Posse brethren:

DARDEVIL is no longer my top comic book.

Whew. Gotta take a personal moment and compose myself. …3…2…and…1…okay, I’m ready to continue.

I don’t like saying it, but the quality of the book has steadily deteriorated since Brubaker and Lark took over from the HOF run of Bendis and Maleev (the run that made me fall in love with the blind Irishman). It kinda started when Matt went on his grand tour of Europe, North Africa, French Guyana, and Khazikstan. It festered for a bit and really became just blatantly obvious with the last 8 issues: the Cruel & Unusual and Lady Bullseye storylines.

For evidence of which I speak, one need look no farther than issue #110. This issue, which was a culmination of a 4-issue storyline ((and what issue of what comic ISN’T currently part of a multi-issue, soon-to-be-traded storyline)), was co-written, as weer the previous 3 installments, by Greg Rucka. Now, Rucka is another one of my faves, his Q&C and CHECKMATE street cred is gold plated with me, but even his sheen couldn’t polish this turd. I can only assume he was aboard to answer legal and/or black co-ops questions for Brubaker because there’s lots of both in this storyline. The problem is neither of those elements are wrapped up quite clearly, or interestingly for that matter, and we need a 3 page expository conversation between two minor characters, one of whom we’ve never seen before, to make sense of how everything went down.

The biggest peanut in this turd, however, is the pacing of the action. Now I loves me some DAREDEVIL ass whoopin and I am certainly one who’ll bend the rules of reality for the sake of a well-told super-hero fight, but this was ridiculoid. At the beginning of 110, a continuation of the conclusion of 109, Matt’s about to throw-down with a penthouse full of oncoming SWAT team members who are all armed and ready to rock with their sub-machine guns. Not only that, but there’s a sniper in a heliocopter just outside the penthouse repeatedly being told to “take the shot”. The sniper opens up, the SWAT guys open up, Matt’s focusing on heartbeats and doing donkey kicks…bada boom, bada bing, he’s got the SWAT dudes subdues and decides to make for daylight through the window towards the flying sniper’s roost. More SWAT guys unload towards the fleeing crimson crusader who, amidst a hail of sub-machine fire opening up not 10 feet behind him, dives blindly (HAH!) through the window. He DOES take care to tuck his head in both hands so as to protect his lady-killer face.

Now here’s where it gets my dander up. In the very next panel Matt Murdock, aka DAREDEVIL, aka The Man Without Fear, is flying. Above him and seemingly about 50 feet away or so, the sniper stands at the opened helicopter door saying “SON OF A—“ as either the chopper or one of the baker’s dozen automatic weapons that are firing at him says CHAKCHAKCHAKCHAKCHAK”. Now…one could interpret this as Matt simply leaping out the whatever-storyeth window and plummeting gracefully while people shoot at him. One could…until the very next panel which shows, I shit you not, DAREDEVIL clinging to the roof of the chopper and doing a swingin-double kick right into the moosh of the baddy who was snipin’ at him. SOMEHOW THIS FUCKER JUMPED OUT THE WINDOW BELOW AND AWAY FROM THE HELICOPTER, THEN ROSE ABOVE IT AND GRABBED IT, NADIA COMENICI’D THE BAD GUY WITHOUT TAKING SO MUCH AS A HANGNAIL, and then!! Then!! He jumps out the OTHER side of the helicopter, once again plummeting gracefully. We don’t se the ffects of this though, as the bad guy in the chopper tells us, “…we lost him…” The next time we see Matt, he isn’t lost, no he is in his kitchen removing his mask to wash his face. Breaking the laws of physics and falling from several hundred feet to the pavement below can really dirty up a guy. DD needed a refresher.

Am I being nit-picky?

Perhaps. But whoever’s fault that whole action sequence was, whether it was the illustrator or the writer, and the incredibly sloppy conclusion to it, as well as to the whole storyline, is indicative of why I no longer find DAREDEVIL my absolute favoritest book.

P.S. I’ve never been crazy about Marko Djurdjevic’s covers either.

How To Cast Comic-Book Flix

2009-02-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

Who as Who in What?!

Instead of thinking about it like “Who is right actor to play Wolverine” ((fuck the dumb shit, Huge Gackman was NOT the right person for the role)), I usually catch myself thinking about it like “What super-hero would Leonardo di Caprio be the guy right for???!”.

Anyone else do this? What have you come up with?

Clint Walker circa 1967 as The Punisher – Anyone who has seen The Dirty Dozen ((and if you are a heterosexual American male who hasn’t then you either need to move to Canada or blow the first guy you see)) and seen the character “Posey” knows who I’m talking of. 6’6” and a muscled 260, they could have shown the movie on this guy’s chest. He was BORN to play Frank castle, only if the space-time continuum and the laws of physics didn’t exist.

Leonardo di Caprio as Gambit – I hate that Remy Etienne LaBeau is the one name that keeps coming to mind for him because he’s too good of an actor and Gambit sucks anyway. Still, tho….
Josh Brolin as Deadshot – something about him SCREAMS Floyd Lawton!

Scott Caan as Wolverine – The neck. Just…the neck. Plus he’s short and stocky. Then, the Alchemist could show up and they could double team the guys from Ugly Duckling in what could only be described as "A 1997 Backpacker's Wet Dream".

Matt Damon as Daredevil – This is NOT stuntcasting just because Ben Whoffleck? Was so horribly miscast as Matthew Murdock back in the first pic. Its because everywhere Ben was wrong for the role, Matt is right. He’s shown in the Bourne trilogy that he can do some good hand-to-hand, and that was the worst thing about watching Daredevil: seeing this big gawky, stiff and slow guy supposedly be a master martial artist. I’ve seen where Jason Statham is supposed to be DD, w/ Frank Miller’s blessing ((as if he’s the go-to guy for what makes a good movie)), but I don’t think he can lose that innder-city London accent. He’s not THAT good of an actor.

Daniel Craig as Oliver Queen – Maybe it’s because he’s British and Ollie reminds me of Robin Hood…I dunno.

Dennis Haysbert as Gen. Nicholas Fury (Marvel Ultimates universe) – I know the character was originally created to be Sam jJack but I’d like to see Fury be less “street” and Haysbert has that presidential cache

James Carville as Scarecrow ((DC)) – Screw Cillian Murphy. Carville wouldn’t even need makeup.

“Randall from SCRUBS” as UATU The Watcher – some are so easy I should get a finder’s fee.

Vincent D’Onofrio as Thor – He knows the character already!!Paul Walker as Speedball –

Because I would LOVE to see a whole film of him getting tortured mercilessly as Pennance.

Welcome to Sinestro Week

2009-01-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

It came and took over our lives, like heroin or Despotellis.

It drives us to turn, on average, 25 percent of the COTW posts at okayplayer.com (plug!!) into shrines. It drives us to graphic design. It drives us to poetry.

It is Sinestro Mania, and it has laid low the Prep Time Posse.

image courtesy of this guy

It’s not our fault. Even the Marvel Zombies among us recognize that since the Sinestro Corps one shot dropped, Dat ‘Stache has been the best villain in superhero comics by a country mile. I spit on your Red Skull. Black Glove couldn’t even keep his chopper in the air, assuming that was even him. As good as Final Crisis has been, Darkseid ain’t got face time. Oh, and then there’s the Skrulls and the “Dark Illuminati.”

*does asshole Basaglia-inspired Wop of Geoff Johns Victory*

I defy you to find one issue of Green Lantern in which Sinestro appears from the last two years in which Sinestro isn’t a complete and utter bad ass. As I’ll go into later this week, there is not a more quotable villain than Sinestro. EVERY ISSUE has two to three Sinestro lines that are just the coldest shit imaginable. What makes the words work is Sinestro’s utter craziness/evil. He basically raped Kyle, but Johns made it less gross and more upsetting than the Dr. Light nonsense. He just toasted a Laira on the verge of redemption. He owns Jordan’s psyche. Hell, he owns THE GUARDIANS’ psyche.

And it’s clear he is Geoff Johns’ biggest mancrush in the whole DC Universe. Johns gets Sinestro like no other writer going right now gets a character, and I’m including Morrison and Superman.

*ducks a Shoe to Suffice*

If you doubt it, pick up In Brightest Day, the recent trade in which Johns compiles his favorite GL stories. The first story shows Sinestro’s first appearance (without a ring!!). Johns understands that Sinestro’s monologue at the end of this first issue about the power of evil contains his entire ethos. Johns understands that there is just enough sense in what Sinestro believes that you can let your guard down and think that you and this guy share some goals. As soon as you do, Sinestro puts a ray of yellow through your chest. Johns’ Sinestro might be a necessary evil, at least if you believe Ganthet. But he is definitely, purely, awesomely evil.

So welcome to Sinestro Week. I call on the Prep Time Posse to rise to the challenge, drop a boatload of ‘Nestro propaganda, and recharge the movement.

And if we don’t?

Look at that, reader.

Another broken promise.

Black Adam 101

2009-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, because throwing rocks at a superhero is a well thought-out, worthwhile attack plan. Right.

In anticipation of all the head-squishing fuckery sure to go down in Justice Society of America #23 next week, here's something a lot of JSA/52 readers and Black Adam fans have probably never seen: his first (and only, as Geoff Johns unfortunately learned during research for JSA) Golden Age appearance.

"The Mighty Marvels Join Forces" was the main story from the first issue of Fawcett Comics' The Marvel Family series, published in December 1945. It features Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, and Uncle Marvel - yes, there really was an Uncle Marvel - banding together to fight Black Adam - whom their mentor, the old wizard Shazam, created 5000 years ago and conveniently waited until now to tell the Marvels about. Like most Golden Age Captain Marvel stories, it was written by Otto Binder and drawn with dot-eyed, potato-nosed precision by C.C. Beck.

Read up over @ Flickr.

(Incidentally, the backup story featured the Marvels adopting and taking care of a foundling baby they dub "Baby Marvel". I shit you not.)

DARKNESS IS SPREADING! (c) Dave Chappelle as Rick James

2009-01-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

During the early '90's, comics went through what can best be described as "The Dark Age," where following the widespread acclaim of "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen" in the '80's, every superhero was a semi-psychotic bad-ass who took no shit from the criminal element. After several missteps, the fans and creators realized complex, realistic characters are more than just stubble and cigars. However, now that superhero movies are big business, we're about to see that same trend hit the bigscreen.

After the kajillions Warner Brothers made on "The Dark Knight," they now want the next Superman movie to be darker.

"You want a piece of me, bitch?"

I'm not even a big fan of Supes, but dude deserves better. A Superman movie should be about as dark as "Spider-Man 2," maybe less. The film could increase the action without being a near rated-R frown fest. And last time I checked, "Iron Man" made a damn nice chunk of change last summer, and it was mostly shits and giggles.

Some characters like Batman, the Punisher, or Wolverine are suited for dark stories. The movies tend to go awry by having the heroes kill or let the villain die. I understand the general movie audience is used to seeing the bad guys get theirs after 2 hours, but there is a line. Batman tying a bolo around the Joker's leg to a stone gargoyle - wrong. Daredevil letting the rapist who beat him in court get run over by a subway train - wronger. Bats leaving R'as Al Ghul on a runaway train - wrongest. There are other ways to tie up the story without having the villain die, or at least have them die from something of their own doing (I don't know, getting stuck with their own bomb, for example).

Am I being too much of a stickler for the rules set by the comics' version? Maybe. But I just feel if a character/story is good enough to adapt, it's good enough to adapt right.

2008-12-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

Rorschach's Dance Party! ALBUM IN STORES NOW!
Rorschach performing "When The Sun Goes Down", from his new album, "Rorschach's Dance Party!" Remember, in our own universe, Rorschach's mother was not a prostitute, so songs about hookers don't make him cry and kill dogs. But the new Common album does, so don't talk to him about that if you like puppies.

Many thanks to the videographer, regardless of their drunken forgetfulness of how turning the camera on it's side doesn't work for video. Also, President Truman's corpse will have to excuse the disheveled appearance. Rorschach was a little drunk and in the bathroom when his name was called, thus the open coat and missing glove.

Anyways, enjoy!

Bonus! "New Year's Day" snippet.

kracka-THOOOM!!! - My favorite __ is drawn by _

2008-11-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

A brief respite today, while I get busy devouring Usagi Yojimbo tpb Vol. 8 "Shades of Death" & The GOON tpb "Chinatown"...

Daredevil / Joe Quesada – Joey Q does DD, my favoritest Marvel character hands down, all swirly and curvey and has him falling upside down 20 stories up from the Hell’s Kitchen street below, his nun-chukas splayed out with the wirey cord wrapped around and around and around him. Shits great. Some of my favorite images ever are of DD going to see Dr. Strange and Quesada drawing the Sorcerer Supreme getting all Doug Henning and introducing other dimensions.

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/daredevilv2n01.jpg

Midnighter / John Paul Leon – Maybe not really fair because JPL is my favorite artist out there (Wintermen represent!!) but his guest shot on Midnighter was HOW I want to see the character! Also it was cool to see cyborgs and animal/machine experimentations. Oh what I wouldn’t give to have a 5-issue JPL Queen & Country run. That sombitch can drawr!

http://www.johnpaulleon.com/index.cfm?page=artwork&cat=1&subcat=36

Batman / Jim Lee (just edging out Andy Kubert) – Not really much to say here. I guess the one thing I could bring up is an idea I’ve been toying with lately, dunno if I can write it into a full length article or not, but, is Batman an icon and an institution because he’s inherently a really cool (and really established) character…or is he an icon and an institution because some of the best writers in the biz have done their best work with him?

http://www.ifanboy.com/images/ifanboy/batmannightwingposter.jpg

Thor / Olivier Copiel – Again maybe not fair because I never ever looked at a Thor book, or Thor IN a book for that matter, until Millar & Hitch (who is easily my favorite artist) did the Ultimates, so I don’t really have much of a frame of reference with him. Copiel’s got skills though and he gives Thor such a heavy presence. All Asgardian and shit.

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs16/i/2007/222/e/9/Oliver_Copiel_Thor_1_cover_by_JonBolerjack.jpg

Tara (Q&C) / Rick Burchett – All right now I’m just bullshitting because on Q&C: Declassified Vol. 2 Burchett doesn’t even DRAW Tara. But I just HAD to talk about this artist! The story is about Tom Powell’s earliest days and the only thing better than the who-dunnit? is Rick Burchett’s ability to create such a beautiful book, clean and sharp yet not sacrificing any of the frenetic pacing and energy the story demands. He truly is my favorite artist in the world.

Bizarro / Eric Powell – One last time…un-fucking-fair because I just wanted to mention Eric Powell’s name because he is…without a doubt…my favorite artist there is. The GOON is like my life’s bl—oh!! I was talking about Bizarro huh?

http://bp0.blogger.com/_Q_v4mvspvuU/Ry0AhRRE8eI/AAAAAAAAAj4/mPMw80Rn0BU/s1600-h/Action+Comics+857+Eric+Powell.jpg

Heath Huston / Jerome Opena – No offense to anyone else on that fanastic book but something about the way JayO draws it…to me THIS is Fear Agent.

http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/725/725476/the-ten-best-image-comics-20060814044118469-000.jpg

Ms. Marvel / Frank Cho – I guess you all can tell I’m fairly new to comics but dammit if they shouldn’t just not let anyone else at Marvel EVER draw Ms. Marvel basept Frank. Basically all women, just let the Cho-ster draw the wimmin folk.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u252/TheBraxcave/MsMarvel.jpg

Spider-Man / the Dodsons (just edging out McFarlane)
Wonder Woman / the Dodsons – Sensational S-M was a great friggin title and they rocked it for the first dozen or so issues. They’re up in the tops of my faves anyhoo, clean crisp lines and a real slinky and sensual style. They’re the only reason I would ever pick up a book with WW…she bores me.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1016/asm523cov3yq.jpg

Wolverine / Humberto Ramos – I swear…I dunno…it’s just with Wolveirne being so small and scrappy and full of attitude, as well as being so overexposed and all…I think Ramos’ graf/anatomically impossibly contorted style works great here. I also really liked his take on the costume and webbing in a few Spider-Man issues I caught back 5-6 years ago. You know the ones.

http://www.album.fr/album-comics/images/_dedicaces/Ramos-Wolverine1.jpg

Captain America / Rob Leifeld – Pretty much the GOAT, am I right? Until I saw the master at work I never knew Steve Rogers was Chinese…or that he had hooves…or that sometimes his muscles have been working out and then THEY get muscles of their own!

http://images.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/cg12212004/Cecotroph.jpg

kracka-THOOOM!!! - Bad Guys & the Team Dynamic

2008-11-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

I enjoy “team” titles for various reasons. The varied characters, the inter-team conflicts and relationships, the fight scenes are often on a much grander scale, and the possibilities for storylines are seemingly endless. Within this realm of books I have an affinity for books featuring evil team-ups. The books Villains United & Infinite Crisis planted this seed for me.

Villains United: While I find this book to be well written but poorly illustrated, what I liked most about it was that it was my introduction to a vast amount of lesser-seen criminal characters and how it really helped flesh out the DC Universe for me when I was relatively unfamiliar to anything beyond the Justice League. The book also introduced me to the dynamite storytelling and compelling plots spinning out of the head of Gail Simone.

Identity Crisis...the GOAT of the new millenium (so far)? Even if one leans to the side of it not being the GOAT (its not) one might still lean toward the opinion that it’s pretty fockin brilliant (it is). And I absolutely lurv the way it opens: following the good guys who are following the bad guys and how they do both do business…Firehawk & Elongated Man watching Bolt watching a couple of hoods while trying to scramble up info. From the criminal 411: Calculator. Also cool for the way it bookends Merlyn’s narration up on the bad-guy satellite o’ love with his good-guy “master arrowsmith” doppelganger (and the guy who I think the story is actually about) Green Arrow. Following Merlyn as the main voice of the baddies, It was really interesting to follow the way one bad guy views others of his ilk. There are those he despises, those he fears, and those he seems to reluctantly admire. The camaraderie is out of necessity and most definitely not borne out of affection. The bad-guy team ups as Merlyn seems to portray it, and as we see Calculator arrange, are borne out of financial motives with a tinge of a revenge factor.

I have followed bad guy teams in other books featuring: Secret Six, Spider-Man’s Sinister Six, Thunderbolts, etc. and one 3 issue run in a book, ironically following the exploits of a super-HERO team, really got me thinking on villain teams. That run was JSA Classified Issues 5-7. Now, I don’t mean the kind of “every single criminal getting together” type of enterprise like the Society, nor the “one chief will tell all the super-villains what to do” type of conspiracy depicted as Two-Face’s elaborate plot to take over Gotham featured in the slickly-written and stunningly drawn Batman: Dark Victory. JSA Classified Issues 5-7 featuring a formation of the “Injustice Society” comprised of: Icicle (the narrator), Tigress, Wizard, Ragdoll, Solomon Grundy, Gentleman Ghost, & The Thinker. I really liked a lot of the runs in that title. I especially liked THAT little run, produced by the incredibly talented team of Van Meter, Oliffe, & Geraci, as it focused more on the IJSA[/b] and how they depended upon, came to the aid of, and supported each other, as opposed to the JSA and they’re usual troublesome travails. An aspect of the storyline I enjoyed, and to tell the absolute truth I’m not sure if this is good comic book or bad comic bad storytelling, was icicle’s solid friendship with Wizard and how determined he was to assist his friend in his friend’s hour of need. Even though the risks were great and he wasn’t quite sure of what he was dealing with, Icicle was not going to let his friend give up without trying everything to help him. He also used the formation of their little cabal in order to re-ignite his love affair with Tigress. Like I said, I can’t tell if its good comic book writing or bad comic book writing to have a bad guy, a through-and-through villain, be so driven by friendship and romance. Its not that he does stupid and illegal things for his friend and lover and only do crime because he has to, no…he’s an avowed evil-doer. Rehabilitation is not in the cards for Mr. Mahkent. However, he is given complexity and layers to his character so that he’s not hated without reason and he’s not just a caricature of a nefarious ne’er-do-well. I’ll come down and say it’s GOOD comic book writing.

Soon though, the baddies all learn who and what they’re dealing with and aren’t really all that excited about letting Johnny Sorrow back into this dimension as he is not known to play well with others. Ragdoll double crosses them all, as they expected all along, and ends up getting fricasied by Mr. Sorrow’s return to this dimension. AGAIN...as they expected all along. It ends with Johnny Sorrow eagerly voicing that he is back in command of the Injustice Society, and is the only one in the room happy about this turn of events.

Long story short…what I’ve been thinking about is the dynamics of “super teams” and specifically, super-villain teams. It seems like there are specific key elements to comprising teams that comic book authors and illustrators follow faithfully. I think it’d be a kick in the pants to be able to bounce around ideas of who could fit well with who and what they could be good at. But I’m a nerd like that. Here are some I’ve noticed:

1. Each team needs a physical powerhouse. Whether its IBAC, Solomon Grundy in the JSA run I mentioned or Solomon Grundy in Dark Victory, each team needs one character who’s going to be able to fight several people at one time and, subsequently, take a large amount of the blows.

2. Each team needs a meta-human, magical, or alien powerhouse. Well, they need one if they want to be successful, that is. Some key member that can lay waste to a city by blinking or something. Someone to lend some credence to the squad’s cache and someone possessing the firepower to make any serious threats believable. I’m thinking someone like Prometheus, Amazo, or Black Adam. Black Adam filled this role in the Society, IMO (although with Luthor, Deathstroke, and Calculator on the squad that’s like a literal “Murderer’s Row” line-up there).

3. Each team needs a legitimate “psycho”. Someone who actually scares the other bad guys on the team. This is vital because when you’re on a bad guy team doing bad guy stuff, someone is going to have to get their hands dirty. Just in case you’ve comprised a team of somewhat squeamish bad guys, it pays to enlist someone like Joker, Crime Doctor, Shadowthief, etc.

4. Each team needs to know that one of their own is going to double-cross them all. That’s just the price of doing business with the baddest of the bad, I guess, but there will always be one member of the team to say “Screw you all” and go for themselves. I think this plot twist has borne itself out in every bad-guy team ever. EVER.

Kracka-THOOOM!!! - My love affair with a samurai rabbit

2008-11-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reading Usagi Yojimbo (UY) pretty much exclusively as of late and I have to say that nothing has touched me, and inspired me, so much since I began my infatuation with Usagi’s stable-mate The GOON. Much like Mr. Powell’s work from 3-4 years ago, Stan Sakai's subtly splendriffical creation strikes the perfect note with me. It’s cartooney and simple on every page, but that’s not meant as a negative here at all. I’ve used the words “cartooney” and “simple” but I consistently find Usagi Yojimbo conveying an advanced, perhaps “dignified” is a better word(?), sensibility. For perfect example of what I mean regarding UY’s dignity, take a look at the sketch that serves as the guest artists’ introduction to the Dark Horse UY trade “Duel at Kitanoji ” (Vol. 17). Legendary MAD Magazine mad-genius Jack Davis duplicates a distinctive UY cover that displayed the sword wielding rabbit donning a traditional Japanese straw hat, poised with his back elbow raised high, his face set in a grim determination and his blade ready to strike its target true. In JD’s rendition of the image UY is replaced by the artist, Samurai Davis-san, and suddenly becomes less real. Both drawings would correctly fit the dictionary definition of “cartooney”, meaning that neither one of them convey a sense of “lifelike” illustration, only somehow in some way Sakai’s drawing of a Samurai rabbit conveys more composure and believability than Davis’. This is no knock on Mr. Davis at all, I just feel it best illustrates Stan Sakai’s ability to be so consistently and abjectly cartooney yet never be silly about it.

I truly believe while operating at its zenith, Sakai’s book expects very little from the reader by way of design, plot development and characterization while simultaneously demanding the same reader possess a modicum of intelligence in order to follow along. The anthropomorphic creatures are unapologetically cartooney, their actions are black & white good & evil, and very little exposition and/or plot development is left un-said, but I have yet to find even one panel to be buffoonish or childish. The storytelling is also pitch-perfect for me as it moves at a brisk clip with events unfolding rapidly. Usagi Yojimbo also often juggles storylines as it follows several distinct characters unwittingly meandering their way toward their ultimate convergences with one another, and once again I find it’s all to the goodage.

The wanderings of Yosagi & Co., in this little slice of feudal Japan, never seems forced, never seems heavy handed, and it never gets stilted and bogged down. This is where the simplicity is a boon to the storytelling. The storytelling is also benefited, however, by the delightful brush work of Stan Sakai and the incredibly rich and detailed backdrop he’s able to wring out of black and white. Technically…its black ink and the absence of black ink on the page that we’re looking at, but in Stan’s masterful hands it becomes a beautiful display of heavy and fine lines, of intricate patterns, of vibrant flora and fauna and of ornately detailed architecture. The rigid straight lines of Japanese architecture and design are given a soft, bouncy treatment on the pages. Straight lines don’t exist in Mr. Sakai’s world and God bless him for it! I adore his style.

I think panel for panel this book offers more action, literal “mano y mano” combat type action, than 99% of the books out there. And though the life of the sword-swingin’ Samurai (or in Usagi’s case: the life of a Ronin) living by the Bushido code is bound to be violent, when the samurai shit hits the Japanese folding fan the book never goes the grisly gross-out route. Sword slices are more implied than anything, with the poor unfortunate slice-ee simply uttering a “GOO!” or a “HYUK!!” and their face contorts in a grimace. Curvy lines arc from Usagi’s back to his sword, which offers a simple “shnuck”, and the unseen blood is spilt. Seriously guys…with as many sword fight scenes are in every one of these books…I think what if Rick Remender, Tony Moore, or even Eric Powell drew this?! There’d be bone fragments, entrails and brain matter flying every which away. But somehow in some odd way, Stan Sakai manages to stuff his book full with beautifully drawn action and swordfight scenes without once EVER veering into the sophomoric or slapstick avenues most would take it.

Long story short, I recommend picking up the TPBs “Grasscutter” (Vol. 12) or “The Mother of Mountains ” (Vol. 21) and check it out.

Bless those damn Limeys!

2008-10-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's admit it, Secret Invasion sucks. Personally, I stopped reading after issue 4. This is my first major 'event' and I gotta say it has ruined me for all future 'events'. Thanks Marvel. But, I have to say that the best thing to come out of this hodgepodge of crap called Secret Invasion is "Captain Britain and MI:13". Paul Cornell has done a great job at creating a neat cast of characters that mesh well together and his plotting has been excellent as well. And, unlike in Secret Invasions, shit actually happens in this comic. So far (Spoilers):
-Captain Britain has died and come back...with a new costume.
-John the Skrull dies.
-Faiza (who seemed to be an insignificant character at first) becomes the new wielder of Excalibur.

-Blade has joined the MI:13!! I didn't even know dude was British!

And that's just the first five issues!

The first story arc was a direct SI tie-in but it was pretty damn good on it's own merit. Besides fighting the Skrull army, the first arc was mainly about establishing the cast of characters as a cohesive unit, which Cornell does well.

For those of you not interested in magic, dragons, tea and all that kooky stuff those damn Limeys are into, I would still recommend this book just on the writing alone. Cornell has done a great job of combing traditional British-magic with superheroes in a really kick-ass way. So go out and but this book! Now!

When Bad Idea Jeans Fit Very Nice

2008-03-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

After World Wide Hulk ended and I saw the list of books that were coming out afterwards, I had pretty much resigned myself to not buying anything in the Hulk Universe anymore.

Matter of fact, the only reason I bought Incredible Herc #111: the Art Adams cover. No, seriously.

Damn, am I glad I did!

On paper, this should have been awful. Hercules, a character who can't maintain his own title for longer than 20 issues. Amadeus Cho, another one of those Marvel characters who is smarter than everybody else*

And I'll be honest, the first issue was just okay but then Pak had the inspired idea to make the first true villain of the first arc, Ares.

It's as if everyone forgot that Ares used to be a villain and a dick for that matter.

The ongoing fight between the two - which his hilarious yet manages to grow the characters - is what Daniel Way is going for with his Wolverine vs. Deadpool fight in Wolverine: Origins with less than stellar returns. Tying their fight to Hercules' mythology has made Hercules and Ares more interesting characters.

Meanwhile, you have Amadeus Cho continuing his ongoing technological war with S.H.E.I.L.D. I appreciate that while Cho is incredibly intelligent, he is a kid and his emotional rationalization for his actions are questionable and immature (bringing down the nation's security for his injured puppy?)

It's kinda sad that the best Marvel books out right now - The Incredible Herc, Iron Fist, The Order - don't involve their flagship characters and are on the verge of (or already are headed for) cancellation

If Jeph Loeb's Hulk is the future of the character, I hope he never comes back to Incredible.

* Do they still make Marvel baseball cards with the stats on the back? If so, who is officially the smartest person in the Marvel Universe?

Melanism says... #2

2008-02-28T09:14:00.001-08:00

Winick is German for 'Winner'

2008-02-18T10:37:00.001-08:00

Hello Internets. New PTP blog member here. I am The Turquoise Chef, #1 Supervillain in Coney Island.

I'm here to talk about my favorite current writer in comics. That is Judd Winick. I read a lot of comic sites where the fuckin assholes who post there talk about how Judd is trash. Well fuck you too, Newsarama and Comicon posters. These are probably the same dickheads who would say Watchmen is the greatest comic ever (what a predictable answer.)

The GOAT!

Sorry fuckers, but Judd is the best comic writer of the last 10 years. The only other writer who even comes close is Chuck Austen.

What makes Judd so good? He takes former shitty characters and improves them for the new millennium.

Take Captain Marvel for instance. He used to be a outdated douchebag like this:

But Judd the GOAT understands that a pussy like that is irrelevant in today's society. Enter a Captain Marvel who is actually cool:

(My fellow PTP cohort Nukkapedia will probably hate my guts for this, but what does that guy know? He thinks 2D animation is better than 3D.)

Jason Todd? He was just a dead piece of shit until Judd turned him into the greatest villain Batman ever faced.

Mia from Green Arrow? She was just another boring girl tagalong until Judd gave her AIDS.

Can't you see it? Don't you understand the amazing character development? I even stand alone on my opinion from the rest of the PTP blog. These dorks would probably rather read some weak mystical crap from bald wizard Grant Morrison.

I'm a supervillain. I know good comics when I read them. This will not be my last post.

Melanism says... #1

2008-02-15T13:48:00.001-08:00

MUST LOVE BLOGS

2008-02-15T00:16:00.000-08:00

Pete's Basement, will you be my valentine?

First off, a bit about my favorite topic, me: I've been reading comics off and on for over 20 years, and I've been visiting comic-related websites for roughly the past 2 of those. In that time I've found a lot of comics I love dearly. And comic-related websites? Not so much. Don't get me wrong here – There are many, many blogs and news sites that I enjoy, many of which can be found in our links sidebar. It's just that after a while, the glut of them start to mesh together into a four colored gelatinous mass of comma splices, press releases, and nerdier-than-thou rhetoric. Even this very blog you see before you has struggled for years to stick out from the crowd.

Which is why it pisses me off a little that Pete's Basement is so fucking good right out of the gate. Barely a month old – Episode 5 went live just days ago – Pete's Basement is already finding its voice as a unique, informative, and above all fun comic book video podcast.

If you're a comic reader, and this goes double if you're a comic reader who frequents the internet, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that this is a perfectly normal hobby taken up by cool, funny, intelligent people who you might actually enjoy meeting in real life. Pete's Basement is 4 or 5 such people (occasionally joined by a ninja) just sitting around a table shooting the shit about comic books. They cheer – and jeer – the latest issues of the day. They dish out helpful advice for back issue ebaying. They engage in lively discussions covering topics that run the gamut of comics' past, present and future. They know their shit and they're obviously passionate about the medium, but they never seem to take it or themselves too seriously. And they love Nightwing. Hey, nobody's perfect.

I hope the guys at Pete's Basement keep it up because they've really captured something special here – The show embodies everything that I love about the camaraderie of comics culture and the sheer unadulterated joy of talking shit about superheroes. It's just like the conversations you have with your friends, only funnier and with better post-production.

Check it out.

Roy Terdberger's Comic Book Happenings

2008-01-23T23:32:00.001-08:00

2008: Year of Teh Suck
by Roy Terdberger, Comics Blogger to the stars

Terdberger here, transmitting at you live from 2.20 GHz of AMD Inspiron processing power and enough RAM to fry the short and curlies off your pruny little nut sacks. That's right, friends, Your Homeboy Roy finally saved up enough scratch for that new DELL 9200 he's been eyeing for so long (or as I like to call it, "The Pussy Magnet") - and let me tell you friends, if you thought I was a badass before, just watch out World (of Warcraft)!!!

But I digress. Friends, as you're probably all too aware by now, 2008 is shaping up to be another landmark year in the continuing shittification of the American Funnybook. And you know Roy Terdberger isn't the type to just stand quietly in the corner when something's stuck in his craw. So I'm here to set the record straight on What's 'Hot' and What's 'Not' in 2008.

Oh sure, we've had a few high points. Take 'Brand New Day' for example. Finally someone at Marv-Capital-L had the wherewithal and the cojones to remove the continuity tumor that was the Spider-Marriage. Look, a swingin' 25 year old bachelor like Peter Parker has no business getting hitched. It's boring, it's lame, and it's completely unrealistic. Hell, I'm 36 and I've never even had a real life girlfriend. So cheers to Mr. Quesada for cutting through all the bullshit and bringing back the webshooter. Terdberger salutes you.

Everything else though? Shit. Just shit, shit, shit, and more shit. And it's gonna get worse before it gets any better, believe you me.

Let's start with DC Comics. With 'Final Crisis' just around the corner, there's no denying that DC Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio has a solid, thought out game plan for the future of the DCU. And that plan is utter, dismal failure. I mean Christ, don't even get me started on Countdown. What a clusterfuck! And trust me, I know, I've been buying it every week. This book is so bad, I almost didn't notice Geoff Johns turning Green Lantern into the fucking Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:

In fact the only DC comic coming out right now that's worth half a damn is Nightwing. Now there's a book that needs to be published weekly. Getting it 12 times a year just ain't enough Dick for yours truly.

Meanwhile, over at the House of Ideas - or should I say, The House of BAD Ideas, everything's coming up Skrully. It's retcon season, again, and this time Marvel's cleaning house with a little help from everybody's favorite shapeshifting alien race - The Skrulls. That's right, the same Skrulls who couldn't invade their way out of a wet paper sack have evidently taken over Earth. Yes, the same Earth that Galactus himself couldn't conquer. Yeah, I'll buy that for a dollar. Think Civil War meets Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the good one), meets whatever drug Brian Michael Bendis was on when he pitched this pitiful excuse for a crossover event. Whatever happened to good crossovers like Heroes Reborn? Oh well, at least this time I've got a contingency plan to reap profit from this dark and dreadful hour:

Pretty smart, huh?

And while I'm on a roll here, I just gotta ask one more thing, folks. Variant Edition Sketch Covers: What the fuck, people?! You mean to tell me for a mere 75 dollars more I can get the exact same book with a shitty, unfinished cover slapped on it? Golly fucking Gee whiz! Please. This is like McDonalds selling Big Macs for 2 bucks, then turning around and selling handfuls of raw meat for 100 bucks. Hey guys, guess what? If I wanted to look at a bunch of black and white chicken scratch, I'd read indie comics. Who's buying this shit, anyway?

Well, that's my time folks. Stargate SG-1 starts in 10 minutes and let's face it: Some things are just more important than comics. So until next time, this is Roy Terdberger, Comics Blogger to the Stars saying: See you in the funny pages!

Man, I read a damn emo comic.

2008-01-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Would you read anything written by this guy?

Just look at this kid. He looks like a meth addicted high school kid who really wants to be in the marching band but never signed up because he knows his friends would make fun of him, which he wouldn't be able to take considering he already has to deal with football players who aren't even that talented or popular beating him up after school every day.

So I know that I sure as hell wouldn't read anything this guy was even remotely involved with. Well, at least not on purpose.

But I did. And I'm so glad I did.

This whiny, columbine-lookin' motherfucker is Gerard Way. He's the singer of My Chemical Romance; the closest thing anybody's gotten to Queen since Freddie's mustache left us for a better place.

And he wrote a comic. It's called The Umbrella Academy. His name is on the front, and the letters in the back even make reference to the term "rock star," but I had absolutely no reason to know who he was before reading this.

While I used to pick which comics I followed based upon the main characters, I later realized that the author brings (arguably) the most important aspect to any comic.

Now, I often find myself following books and stories that I otherwise wouldn't have cared about based purely upon the writers. So after looking this guy up, I was really surprised to find out he hadn’t written anything else other than songs with titles like, “Early Sunset Over Monroeville.”

This is the first time that not knowing a writer’s name helped me find a new book.

But I feel like I should say at least something about the comic itself. Since nerds like us always love describing things in vague, referential terms, The Umbrella Academy is kind of like if you mixed Generation X with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and stuck it into in the world of Hellboy.

The final issue in The Umbrella Academy's 6 issue story, The Apocalypse Suite, ships Feb 20th.

A few sentences on Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm

2008-01-22T17:52:00.000-08:00

Sentences is an autobio comic written by Percy Carey aka MF Grimm with art by Ronald Wimberly. It was published last year by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. And I liked it.

Now, Grimm is a bit of an underground also-ran in terms of his place in hip hop, and I was initially skeptical of my own personal level of interest in his life story. I don't even really bump his solo work like that, so why would I buy his autobiography, right? Well, I'll tell you why:

MF Grimm has been through some serious shit.

Music career aside the guy has already lived about a dozen lifetimes. When he was a kid, Morgan Freeman landed him a gig on Sesame Street. As a teen he was involved in drug dealing and all that it entails. He's been in and out of jail, not to mention shot more times than 50 Cent and Britney's vagina (hi, Google users!) combined. I have trouble getting into a lot of autobio comics because frankly, not everyone's life is autobio material. Sentences doesn't really suffer from that problem.

Grimm narrates the story with an casual, conversational tone that works for the most part. It's not "great writing" in any sort of formal or traditional sense, but it's definitely engaging and genuine. It's funny at times, heartbreaking at others, always leaving you anticipating what's waiting on the next page.

The art has some of the same rough around the edges qualities of the narration, and to great effect. Some pages just stopped me dead in my tracks with the kind of raw powerhouse visuals that instantly burns itself into a mind's eye. An attempt on Grimm's life that takes place in a blizzard, a leather shop robbery, and the triumphant "standing ovation" that closes the story are all images I won't soon forget.

 And let me just say, as a lifetime comic geek and hip hop fan, I don't get too many books like this in my life. On the rare occasion that the two worlds do meet, or at least attempt to meet, the result is generally so unbearably corny that I simply can't stand to subject myself to it. Sentences pulls it off, and I'm on the verge of declaring this book the hip hop equivalent 'Blankets' or something. I do sometimes question the timeline of certain events, but overall it's just cool to open up a comic book and see Suge Knight standing there.

All that said, the book is not beyond reproach. Grimm's informal approach to storytelling does have its drawbacks, and at times I would have liked a bit more structure. I realize that real life doesn't break down in 3 acts, but that doesn't mean an autobiography can't. There's a scene where Grimm learns his Grandmother dies, and he then tells us she was one of the most important people in his life. Which is odd because up until that point, she isn't even mentioned. I'm not doubting the guy's claim, I'm just saying. "Show, don't tell" and all that.

Sentences can get a little 'after school special' at times as well. "Didactic" is too strong of a word but let's just say certain passages seem to be written with Grimm's parole officer in mind.

The ending itself is moving and downright inspirational, though some of the panels leading up to it read a bit like a press release. I'm amazed at the obstacles Grimm has struggled to overcome in the music industry and life in general, but reading through what was basically just a list of his current projects sort of took me out of the experience.

Ultimately, there's a lot to like about this book. It's a gritty crime novel with a relatively cheese-free life affirming twist, as well as a crash course in hip hop history told from a firsthand point of view. If any of these things sound appealing to you, you will enjoy Sentences.

A Titan Rides the Train

2008-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that any comic fan who is dependent on public transportation hates Wednesdays (or whenever they get around to picking up their four colored haul).

I'll elaborate on why for the automobile owners momentarily. First, let it be known that I'm not one of those self-deprecating comics fans who figured out in high school that you have to make fun of yourself before others can. I feel no shame towards reading comics, but I'll be damned if my fellow commuters don't try to grill it into me.

Seriously, reading a comic on a bus or train will have people looking at you as if you've made repeated guest appearances on To Catch a Predator.

I'm quite certain that a few women who were feeling me lost all interest the moment they spotted the Midtown Comics bag I was holding. They didn't see the newest issues of Action Comics or Hellboy in my hand. Instead they saw a giant copy of Big 'Uns (can I get a "whoa Bundy?").

Strangely enough, just as if I actually was rocking a porno mag, all the elitism in the world isn't going to stop them from trying to sneak a peak at what's going on between those pages. The interest is obviously there. Shit, I'm sure these same people had Heroes cued up on TIVO, the complete Buffy the Vampire DVD set, and saw 300 on the opening day.

At the end of a work day, I can't be concerned about what these closeted comic fans are thinking about me. I have a 2 hour commute, and best believe I'd rather break out my Birth of a Nation GN rather then reset my ipod's eternally dwindling battery for the fifth time that day.

...

Unless, of course, I'm sitting next to a remotely attractive woman. In that case I just may have to carry a sudoku book or something.

Why I'm Not Blogging About Heroes Anymore.

2007-10-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

That's right, faithful reader. I've reached the end of my stick with writing about this show but before I go, a few parting shots:

You know things have gone awry when I'm rooting for Sylar to kill the Typhoid Twins.
What's the point of Sylar anyway? He has essentially been reset to season one Sylar, trying to get his powers back up.
Speaking of reset, this show as too many characters and stories back at square one

Peter is trying to figure out his powers
There is a dystopian future he must prevent
Issac's paintings are the key even though he's been dead for 5 plus months storywise and despite his spell of no input due to not being high, we're too believe he painted at least 7 more future laden clues before Sylar ate his brain
Mohinder trusts the wrong guy

Mohinder is the symbol for everything I hate about this show right now. His character is so dumb it is beyond comprehension. I remember how happy I was when I thought Sylar killed him last season.
I don't care about Claire trying to fit into a new school or her new stalker boyfriend.
What do you do with your best and most popular character (and Emmy-nominated actor)? You separate him from the rest of the cast and give him his own lame storyline.
As much as I hated the "Save the Cheerleader, Save The World" campaign, at least it showed that the story was going somewhere. This year, I have no clue what the hell is going on.
H.R.G. is the only interesting character on the show.
Given how great and exciting "Five Years Later" was in season one, isn't it clear the producers should have let Peter blow up New York?

I'm going to keep watching but I just can't muster up the energy to write about this show.

Countdown to Lost begins now

The Break-Up

2007-10-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Countdown:

I tried to do this in person but you wouldn't see. I tried to call you but you wouldn't pick up the phone. So you have left me no choice but to write you this letter.

CD, this just is working out for me anymore. I thought I could hold on and wait to see if this relationship went anywhere but I can't. I thought it would be like before, when you were 52. But now, I don't know. Did I change? Did you change?

No, I'm pretty sure we both changed. You keep going on aimlessly in your life, not knowing where you want to go. You took on too many things at once and now I don't even know what going on with you.

I've changed too. I've been in abusive relationships like this before, sticking around just to see how things ended. I hate feeling like I wasted all my time if I'm not going to stick around to the end. But I've got to be mature. I've got to let you go and move on.

I'm sorry that this didn't work out but don't worry, there are other readers out there in sea for you. I just can't be one of them.

Sincerely,
Melanism

P.S.: Do you have Sinestro Wars phone number?

Heroes Season Two: "Fight or Flight"

2007-10-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

I miss Mars Investigations.

I'm changing my style of writing about these episodes.

What I Liked:

Kristen Bell is back on television.
Matt Parkman expanding the use of his powers.
No Claire/SuperStalker in this episode
No Typhoid Twins in his episode
Micah being Yoda to Monica's Luke Skywalker. It's good to see someone have fun with their powers for once (not counting Elle frying one of the Irishmen)

What I Didn't Like:

Since they made such a big deal of Kristen Bell joining the cast, they kind of wasted her.
I've been told by a couple of people that I'm being nitpicky but it really annoys me how quickly character's travel on this show. I'm going to need a timeline because without them saying so, I'm assuming that all these stories are going on at the same or around the same time.
I can't stand how stupid these characters act. Why would Mohinder bring Molly back to the company when there the ones who had her locked up in the first place? Why would Matt, a POLICE DETECTIVE, enter a room with a suspect (father or not) that he hasn't inspected? Why would Niki go to The Company for her problems when Linderman, who ran the Company, shot her husband, D.L.? I can do this all day...
Why isn't there more of a Butterfly Effect with Hiro tampering in the past? They showed in the beginning how is actions changed the past a little bit but they haven't remarked on it since.

Questions:

Without access to Molly's ability tracking power and giving that Monica JUST learned she had powers, how did Mohinder show up on her doorstep?
Who is Elle's father? (I think Papa Petrelli is still alive)
How did whomever Elle was working for lose Peter in the first place?
Is Papa Parkman really The Nightmare Man?
Did Nathan has facial reconstructive surgery in the four months from saving New York and the premiere?
Does Matt have the ability to save Molly himself with his expanding powers?
Who else's powers have we not seen the full extent of?
Was Peter lying when he said his new Irish girlfriend's artwork was good?

Heroes Season Two: "The Kindness of Strangers"

2007-10-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

After the preview for next week, I already don't care about this episode.

Why didn't anyone call Claire's parents after she ditched school with SuperStalker?
If anyone is going to put a bullet in HRG's eye, it will be SuperStalker?
Aww, my two dads. They are a little too close in their argument. I can't be the only one who expected a smooch.
Damn, that is a nice beard.
What happened to Nate's wife who helped ruin season six of 24?
"I'm not allowed to be here. Bitch, I'm Nathan Petrelli. I will fly you to the sky and drop your ass."
Typhoid Twins...perfect, I wanted to check on the Giants game.
7-3 Giants.
Sylar got pretty far with a bloody stomach in the woods in the middle of nowhere.
Is Uhura reading from a teleprompter?
Apparently, you need to be kinda cute to have powers. (Doing an age check on IMDB for Dana Davis)
So she confesses for a crime that they should have on videotape?
"But I can fly." Nice pickup line.
(Dana Davis is legal. Awesome)
Nathan shaved. I hope he donated his beard hair to goodwill
Matt is teaming up with another power. This should end well.
Bye Mama Petrelli. I know she's not dead yet but the Heroes writing staff was never known for its subtlety.
How are they twins but only one can understand English?
Well, Typhoid Twins are going to be suckers too.
(Please let this not play out with Sylar killing the brother which sets the sister loose killing everyone. That seems too stupid, right? RIGHT?!?!)
How is that guy cast as the store manager on two shows on NBC that air back-to-back (Chuck)?
Katrina victims are the new show stereotypes in 2007.
Claire, your dad is the master. How do you think you can lie to him?
HOW IS THIS DUDE FLYING IN DAYLIGHT??!?!
Damn, Parkman. You got hit with the double whammy: wife cheated AND the baby's his!
Matt's daddy is a power?
We at Heroes understand the plight of the African-American Katrina Survivors.

This relationship is moving a little too fast,no?
Way to not use your powers, Micah?
Way to nuzzle up to your cousin's breasts, kid. I wonder how many takes they filmed.
So one of the people in that photo is the boogeyman. If this were "Lost", I would rewind to the scene where Matt and Nathan looked at the photo and see who was the most noteworthy actor who had not been introduced yet and deduce that he was The Nightmare Man. But this isn't lost and the Giants game is still on.
What's with Nathan's mirror image?
Did Sylar just say "golly"?
Honestly, those police sketches aren't even so good that if you look at it, you immediately know it was them.
How is Sylar healed from his sword wound?
Nice defection Claire.
So H,R.G. and The Haitian are on the road again?
Does NBC know that the WWE owns all those moves? Did they have to pay Vince Mcmahon for use of Rey Mysterio's 619?
Way to go, Matt. How did child services leave a child in your hands?

Next Week: VERONICA MA...UM...KRISTEN BELL!!!!!!! Now I give a shit about this show.

Heroes Season Two: "Kindred"

2007-10-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

Sylar's back. Can he bring some excitement back to this season?

Random thoughts for last night's episode:

Take the fucking box, Peter!
When exactly does the Typhoid Twins story get interesting? Dania Ramirez is hot but not "ignore the deficiencies in the story" hot
Who tries to steal a car in broad daylight in front of a cop? How hard is it for two people to stay together?
I knew D.L. was dead (despite getting shot less than Parkman)
Candice/Michelle: I guess an illusionist is an easy role to recast (FYI,the original Candice is now on Reaper on the CW)
I bet Sylar wishes he got to eat Claire's brain
How hard would it be to track the purchases of Papa Suresh's book?
So Parkman knows about Mohinder's secret meeting? I wonder if Mohinder told Matt or he just read his mind.
How did the state award custody to a divorced cop and a guy who goes around the country holding lectures about people with superpowers?
OK, the notes to Ando are pretty cool but you are telling that no one notice a note to Ando in all those centuries?
So Claire/s stalker is a dick?
Who flies in broad daylight? Nice to see that their special effects budget has increased?
Go home, Hiro.
Do they cast from Star Trek conventions? If Scotty had been alive, would he have been the boss of the fake Irish gang?
I like this Anakin Skywalker Peter we've got going...then he ruined it by not opening the fucking box.
How Sylar obtain Michelle's powers? How does his powers actually work?
Great, Sylar is LOST. Hopefully he can defend himself against smoke monsters and polar bears?
Oh, why couldn't Issac's painting have shown Mohinder with a bullet in his eye?

Heroes Season Two: "Lizards"

2007-10-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

Has Mohinder learned some new tricks? Will Peter remember who gave him the haircut he badly needed?

Here are my randumb thoughts on episode two:

You find a guy who can shoot shit out his hands and you're looking for iPods.
How did they actually apprehend Peter considering his powers?
How many Issac paintings are there?
So Matt's first case as detective is into the Mr. Sulu murder. What are the odds?
What happened to Audrey Hanson, the FBI agent who knew all about Matt's powers and Sylar?
Something that always bothered me about Hiro. Shouldn't his English have improved more than it had when he went back in the past to save Charlie Andrews?
This Hiro storyline is stupid. If this was Jeph Loeb's idea. I wouldn't be surprised.
So Claire's smart? Well, book smart...
Man, these are awful accents. Couldn't they grab some extras from the cast of The Black Donnellys off the unemployment line?
The Haitian (Who came up with that name, Vince McMahon?) is back...and he's dying! Doesn't pay to be black on this show (D.L.*, Charles Deveaux, Simone Devaeaux)?
PLEASE DON'T TELL ME MOHINDER GOT TO HAITI THAT FAST?!?!
Is fine-ass Maya a Typhoid Mary without her brother near by?
At least Hiro has complete confidence in his powers. That's the real problem with this show.
Maybe Peter is finally on the path to his bad ass five year self
Why hasn't Hiro even attempted to teleport back home?
They are going to have to explain at some point how all the people with powers are drawn to one another otherwise these coincidences are going to be one of the things that bring down this show.
Ah Mohinder. Once a dumbass...
I'm calling our immigrant friends The Typhoid Twins or fine-ass Maya and her brother.
Nathan is making me want to grow a full beard.
Mama Petrelli is next.
...or maybe not. It appears H.R.G. has trained Mohinder well.
H.R.G. and The Haitian. Tag Team, back again...
The toe cutting was gross but cool.
Ok, Peter. You phased through the ropes, beat the shit out of thugs and shot beams out of your hands. JUST TAKE THE F@!&ING BOX! What's this negotiating shit?

NEXT WEEK: The Box. I swear I want to take the NBC executive charged with marketing for Heroes and hold him underwater for five minutes.

*They haven't said he's dead but I see the writing on the wall

Heroes Season Two: "Four Months Later..."

2007-09-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

So after the non-finale season finale, what's next?

Here are just a collection of thought from the season premiere:

Mohinder, a.k.a. Sayid's weaker twin brother, still can't act and shouldn't be narrating.
Fine ass Dania Ramirez has joined us. Thank you, Mr. Kring. First The Sopranos, now this. She has a great agent.
The fact that Nathan and Peter are still alive and Syler survived, the finale really was pointless.
So Matt adopted Molly. Are we to assume she's been cured of whatever disease she had in the finale?
Sulu has been marked for death by the new Syler...oh wait...the old Syler is still around. Iguess the old Heroes are getting wiped out.
Isn't Nathan a senator? He won the election, right?
I'm glad David Anders (Takezo Kensei and Alias' Sark) is working again but do we really need some The Last Samurai/Michael Dudikoff in feudal Japan.
Mr. Bennett works at Kinko's!!! How can he tell Claire to not be a cheerleader when he's back at another paper company?
Parkman and Mohinder are raising Molly = My Two Dads

Mr. Mohinder, we'll pay you in goooooooooold!

Claire's still an idiot.
Mr. Bennett has still got it. I was getting worried for a second that going into hiding had made him soft
"How did you honor your son?" You got served, Mrs Petrelli!
Maya (Ramirez) apparently spreads a disease when separated. Next week, I'll have a good term for the Anti-Wonder Twins.
So Mohinder and Bennett are working to bring the Company down? Good call, H.R.G. After spending half the season making a fool of Mohinder (the other half Mohinder made a fool of himself), he's who you trust to bring down your enemies? Good luck,
What's with what Nathan saw in the mirror?
Of course, Claire's stalker can fly. Has Nathan got another kid out there?
I wonder what Mr. Sulu's power was?
I don't know how well this show can work with Hiro separated from everyone.
Those are some awful accents.
Who locked up Peter Petrilli? More importantly, he finally cut off those awful bangs?

All and all, a good setup for the season but I definitely have my concerns. I hope we aren't going to have another Boogeyman villain and Hiro needs to rejoin the rest of the cast sooner than later.

New Joker PIcture From "The Dark Knight"

2007-07-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

World War Hallow: Weasleys Getting Gully Edition

2007-07-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

Lord.

Smashathon 2007 took a back seat last week. Last week was all about getting a cup of coffee at 10:30, getting in line at 11, dealing with kids stepping over me until midnight, getting it at 12:15, getting home at 12:30, having a sifter of Henny at 2:30, screaming “DON’T GO UPSTAIRS YOU MORON” at 3, making a cup of dat earl grey at 4:30, crying because she killed SPOILER DELETED at 5:30, making the pot of coffee at 6:30, finishing at 8, being giddy until 9 am, and falling asleep for 3 hours.

And then reading it again. The whole thing. Twice in one day. I defy anyone to fuck with my dork grind.

So in honor of the conclusion of the best series of books of all time, World War Hulk doesn’t get a smash factor this week. World War Hulk gets a Hallow Factor.

Hulk/She Hulk interaction: One Hallow

WWH has contained a lot of stereotypical female behavior. Last episode, Medusa was on some “Don’t Mess With My Man” shit like she was Lucy Pearl. And here comes She Hulk with the “everyone has tried to talk with him, but not ME, I’m SPECIAL, he’ll listen to ME.” The only thing worse than trying to reason with a green pissed off galactic king is when you BITE THAT STEEZ. I’m talking to you, Sue Storm. Bad enough that She-Hulk thought the whole cousin thing was going to help, but why would Hulk care what Sue thinks?

He doesn’t. He doesn’t care what any of the hos think. Hulk has a gaping hole in his heart where his queen used to live, and no words of solace from his puny cousin is going to fix it. For his animal masculine needs, he’s got that Kaifi chick in the golden armor. Which means, in a way, that Hulk is pretty enlightened. Regardless of your race, gender, or religion, Hulk will treat you the same. Hulk will smash your damn body through three feet of road.

Cumulative Hulk Crew Smashing: One Hallow

Man, on the page where the Warbound go through the Avengers, you see Hulk did not bring the B Team back to Earth. The Ambiguous Gender dude with the metal arms plasmas Luke Cage to the Bronx. The guy who looks like the Thing smashes a head. And yet it’s the Brood who cements himself as the Sen Dog to Hulk’s B Real by throwing tentacles and a fiery blast down Ms. Marvel’s gullet. Ms. Marvel is lame as hell, and Brood knew that. Watch and see if Brood doesn’t go straight for the punk in every fight. Brood could take anybody, but punks offend Brood’s aesthetic sensibilities.

Storm, Torch, and Thing Trying Hard: Three Hallows.

Storm threw a hurricane at Hulk. Johnny set about four square blocks on fire. Thing had the utter audacity to try to slug it out. If you’re a citizen of the 616, you can’t ask anymore. If you’re a superhero and you throw a hurricane, you’ve done your job. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other guy. Barkley played like a beast in the 93 Finals, but Mike was better. No shame.

Hulk CLAPPING ON THING’S DAMN HEAD: One Hallow

Ain’t nothing sweet.

Intermission: One Hallow awarded to WWH XMen 2

Enough people have commented upon the fact that the books affiliated with WWH haven’t helped advance the story much.

To which I reply: “Story? Qua?”

I’ve glanced at a couple of the side issues. People have gone overboard with the Ghost Rider slander, which was only bad the first issue and downright enjoyable in the second. Incredy 107 was fine. Thus far, WWH XMen has contained some of the best smashing of the series. Issue 2 features Wolverine getting pummeled and Hulk not caring that Kitty turned his arms into stone.

End Intermission

Richards: Three Hallows

Reed Richards going out like an absolute punk has to be the highlight of the series thus far. At least Iron Man built a cool suit and tried to fight. Mr. Fantastic built a nightlight.

I was quite pleased to see that the Marvel writers followed the laws of physics. When Hulk put the Macho Man Savage double axe handle on Reed’s head, it properly caused Reed’s body to expand outward, much in the same way that squeezing the middle of a tube of toothpaste will sent Colgate screaming towards both ends. Reed also suffered the further humiliation of the Hulk dragging him through the street. This indicates that Hulk realizes that while all the Illuminati deserve his hate, only one deserves his complete disdain.

General Ross 2 Page Spread: Minus One Hallow

So Issue 3 is going to be Hulk throwing tanks around? What’s so cool about that? Hulk has already taken down Tony, Reed, and Black Bolt. I assume he’s throwing Xavier over his shoulder in the third XMen issue. From a vengeance perspective, all he really has to do is bust into Sanctum Sanctorium and we’ve run out of plot for the last three issues. I don’t care about the Sentry at all, but judging by the Issue 5 cover his fight with Hulk is going to be the climax of the whole event. I’m worried, fam.

Final Hallow Rating: Nine Hallows

Granted, the new Harry Potter got a billion jillion Hallows, but for a comic, you can assume 9 Hallows to be pretty frickin’ sweet.

An Idiot's Guide to World War Hulk: It's Here (C) Common

2007-06-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Now I know why the Posse needed me. If you go over to okayplayer.com right now, you can hear a lot of fools screaming that this issue gets an infinite smash factor. These are the same people who called Stillmatic a classic. The post-modern devaluation of standards of good and bad has now taken some of the greatest comics minds of my generation. For shame, PtP. For shame.

Figure 1: An Average Album

Not to get all Russian figure skating judge on you, but there are some clear elements of WWH that necessitate mandatory deductions. For one thing, the “puny human” and “smash” talk is overdone. Yes, it’s the Hulk and these are his signature lines. He doesn’t have to say them every page, and his adversaries don’t have to use them nearly so often. Should Ms. Marvel really be saying that Hulk smashed Black Bolt? That’s really her go-to verb in that situation?

More importantly, people need to get their fight standards up, because the fight with Black Bolt was just awesome, not insane, grotesque, over-the-top, the-Hulk-is-back-in-town-and-the-world-is-doomed awesome. Yes, watching Black Bolt’s voice peel back the skin on Hulk’s face transported me to a higher place Yes, the “I want to hear you scream” line was cold. Yes, waving his carcass around for the world to see was gangsta.

But can we please see the actual smashing? I need to know how Hulk got over on Black Bolt. Did Hulk take him down in a fair fight, or did he just get the jump on him with that flying leap and knock him out before Bolt could really get going? If it’s the latter, did he really do anything that cool? I could sneak up behind Liddell and smack him on the head with a 2X4, and I’ve won the fight. I demand this fight be given proper treatment in one of the side books this month, or I demand seeing Hulk throw Bolt around later in the series.

So let’s chill on the perfect smash factor talk.

However…

Man.

Man.

FUCKING A

There was some smashing.

Asteroids got smashed. It’s their fault for chilling out between Mars and Jupiter and not forming a planet like the rest of the rocks in its graduating class. And then Hulk jumped onto the Moon. This may be the underrated moment of the series. Only suckers dock their ship and use the airlock.

Let none of the preceding argument make the reader think that I do not recognize the fundamental coolness of how thoroughly Hulk smashed Black Bolt. Dude peeled back Hulk’s skin, and Hulk was on him three seconds later. My favorite moment of the encounter was cocky-ass Medusa talking up her man before the throwdown. We desperately needed a few panels with her afterwards, because now that he’s got his ass smashed, we all know there’s NO damn way she’s sticking with Black Bolt. After the fight Hulk was probably all like, “Woman, you like inhumans? This is my ace, the Brood.” Brood be like, “Sup darling? The X Men fucked up my thrown world. I gots to go fuck up their mansion, but how bout I holla at you on the way back?” And that’s how Medusa is gonna roll, because she tired of fucking her mute-ass cousin for all these years.

(Oh shit, son. Shelly knows some back story.)

Figure 2: PtP is for the ladies

And then there was the royal dicking Tony Starks receives on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of this book. Please don’t sleep on the feedback loop the Warbound sent straight to Tony’s dome. That’s absolutely critical, since it showed Tony he was not fucking with the same dumb Hulk of years gone by. Tony got his ass whupped so bad that Dr. Strange had to show up and TELL him he got his ass whupped. Damn.

Then there’s the fight itself. Legendary. Down by law. Everything you could expect from this series and more. I’ve got to say, Tony tried. That rocket fist is cool, and the ability to throw the Hulk through several buildings should not be underestimated.

However, two obvious mistakes doomed Tony to quick and brutal retribution. First, Iron Man punked himself with his pompous, Rumsfieldian “I will protect you” speech. That speech made me resolve to finally read Civil War, because I need to know what possible sequence of events could have made a tin can so gassed on himself. The writers deserve all the credit in the world for including the prototypical “bad guy talking shit halfway through the fight and making a really bad mistake in doing so.” I was really glad Hulk didn’t hear that speech, because he would have started laughing, which would have compromised his madness level.

But you really can’t blame Tony for getting himself smashed. The second, absolutely critical mistake that doomed him was not his fault. Right now, open a new tab, wiki “Iron Man’s Armor,” and note where it says that his brand new Hulkbuster Armor MKII has Tony “ready to tackle the Hulk upon his return from space.”

Ha.

Ha Ha

AHAHAHAA!!

“OH HELL...”

Figure 3: Oops

SOME STARKS FAN BOY RAN HIS MOUTH!!! HULK SAW THAT!! HIS SHIP HAS NET ACCESS!! NOW SOME BUSH VOTING STARK FAN BOY IS CRYING!!

Needless to say, Hulk slightly disagreed with Fan Boy’s assessment. Needless to say, Hulk SMASHED HIM THROUGH EVERY FUCKING FLOOR IN A 100 STORY BULDING. If we're honest with ourselves, we can say that WWH can end right now and we can’t complain, because we can't ask anything more than that. He took apart frickin’ Iron Man completely and in mere seconds.

But the folks at Marvel will deign to give us more goodness. Every time I think of that last panel, I crack a little smile, because I think of what Colonel Sanders and the rest of the Love Brigade must look like then they see Hulk coming out of the rubble even madder. They know their time is coming in Issue 2. I imagine this does not sit well with them.

Smash Factor: 4.33 out of 5. It's on.

Worst Comic I Bought This Week: Uncanny X-Men #487

2007-06-08T11:02:00.001-07:00

I spend a shitload of money on comics and while I wish they were all winners, odds are they are a couple of stinkers in the bunch. Every week, I'm going to post about the comic I wish I had left on the shelves. It goes without saying that there will be spoilers.

The Comic: Uncanny X-Men #487

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artist: Salvador Larroca

Description: The X-Men are back from space! Well, half of them, anyway. The team is shattered, broken and separated. The group that has returned to earth is finding it much worse than how they left it-- especially underground. Attacks in the Morlock Tunnels immediately grab the X-Men’s attention. What do these attacks have to do with the future of the mutant race? Maybe special guest-star Storm can get to the bottom of all this!

Why It Sucked: Now that the mediocre "Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" which after 12 issues really didn't end, it just gave the editors a way to get Professor X his powers back (Once Magneto gets his powers back...or did that already happen...House of M will have been nothing more than an excuse to start three Wolverine origin minis and make everyone hate Brian Michael Bendis even more)...where was I? Oh yeah. This comic made no sense. The Morlocks are back and hatching some plan that involves hurting poor little Leech. Warpath flirts with Hepzibah over knives and Storm takes a break from her other two books (Black Panther - which should be renamed When Stormy Met T'Challa or Sleepless in Wakanda - and The Fantastic Six) because for some reason, Brubaker decides to bring up that old Storm used to run the Morlocks angle. That was the 80's, Ed. What kind of influence would Storm have over the Morlocks? That's like asking Jimmy Carter to end the Iraq War. Anyway, I'm going to pretend that Brubaker didn't write this shit.

Runner-Up: Countdown #47. Sure, Black Adam, murderer of maybe a million people, could hide out in Gotham and Batman wouldn't fucking know! Sure.

An Idiot's Guide to World War Hulk: May Days

2007-05-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

And off we go. The first two books of WWH are designed to get morons like me up to speed as to why Hulk will be smashing the good guys over the next few months. We get a lot of plot development with just a teeny tiny preview of the goodness that is to come.

The Incredible Hulk 106

The cover might be the smashingest thing about this book. Hulk looks more constipated than angry, so it won’t win any art awards, but it’s a solid concept. Hulk is grabbing the world, each hand significantly bigger than the gigantic low pressure system developing in the Atlantic. Fuck weather.

Once you open the cover, you’re getting a lot of She Hulk being remorseful and conflicted and degreened by head asshole in charge, Tony Stark. The panel where she smacks Tony upside the head is a nice precursor to what her cousin is going to do, and Tony’s cunning in using the head smack to his advantage actually has me a little worried he might be able to pull off something similar to the headliner. Reed Richards introduces himself to new readers as the kind of guy who seeks to capture little kids. Marvel even establishes a subdick, some guy named Dr. Sanders, who is clearly going to be the victim of a particularly gruesome smashing as a message to the head dicks. If this issue does nothing else, it establishes who the bad guys are, which the four little kids who still read comics will appreciate. WWH Commandment 2: Thou shalt not feel bad about the smashing.

Other than that, blah blah blah. I own a coyote, blah blah blah. I love my cousin but am conflicted about what he becomes, blah blah blah. The only real smashing that occurs are in the flashbacks to some of Hulk’s earlier, less notable ass kickings and when She Hulk punches Doc Sanders into the next county. I did ask for a little background, so I won’t complain too much. Yet we can reasonably expect this issue to contain the least amount of smashing for a long, long time.

SMASH FACTOR: 1 of 5.

World War Hulk Prologue

SHIT!!!!

THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!! HE HAS A SWORD HE DOESN’T NEED, BUT HE LIKES IT!! HE HAS A LESS POSITIVE OPINION OF SOME ALIEN SCAVENGERS TRYING TO JACK HIS SHIP!! HE THINKS THEY’RE ILLUMINATI AND HE THROWS REED AND DR. STRANGE INTO THE SUN!! THE TENSION MOUNTS!! ON WITH THE BODY COUNT!!

The sword should give us a lot of hope for the future of WWH. Hulk should remember how cool the sword is and either keep using it or come up with an even cooler and more unnecessary weapon. We can safely assume Hulk will employ cars, lampposts, and the rest of the usual suspects, but what if Hulk gets ahold of a chainsaw? I see no reason Hulk can’t tape a Glock to his back and put a couple slugs into the Thing at close range John McClain style. I’d also be open to some cut rate hero breaking Hulk’s sword, which would make him just that much more angry, because he likes it. The possibilities are endless.

The rest of the main story is pretty good with some nice flashbacks and old school Ironman pictures, but Mini Marvels steal the show. Anything that shows you don’t take yourself or your mega crossover event too seriously wins points with me, and it’s legitimately funny. For once I didn’t think Namor was dour and irrelevant, as his “the fish are good” line was one of the best. If Marvel wanted to do a four page Mini Marvel summary of every WWH issue, they’d have my support.

The only negative about the Prologue is that I’m starting to get real suspicious of Amadeus Cho and his potential to take up way too many pages that should be dedicated to smashing. So far he’s been fine and even a little entertaining. He’s got a mini-T.A.O. thing going on, and he seems to have the Hulk’s best interests in mind. But I do not need some kid executing Byzantine schemes in WWH unless they put Richards or Stark into compromising, green positions.

SMASH FACTOR: An enthusiastic 3.5 out of 5. I have vowed to give no issue of WWH more than a 5 of 5 Smash Factor, so I have to be careful with how high these early rankings go. The Prologue features some truly inspirational smashing that nonetheless felt like the last few pitches a reliever throws in warm up. Sure, they’re at game speed, but the real fireworks have yet to start.

An Idiot’s Guide to World War Hulk: A Prelude

2007-05-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

First off, the idiot in question is not you, my dear reader. I am an idiot for many reasons, two of which are particularly relevant for our current purposes.

One, I have been the foremost detractor of the Prep Time Posse since its inception. They can’t make a comics post over at okayplayer without me saying something cheeky about how they’re dorks, geeks, or some combination of the two. I hope it’s been clear that this is all in fun. It’s probably less clear (if only to me) that I was using my little jokes to pretend to draw some line between me and Comic Book Nation. As you can tell by my asking to write 10k total words for this blog, there is no line. For God’s sake, I read summaries on wiki of events that happened 15 years ago at least three times a week. It’s time to come out of the closet. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Figure I: JRennolds

The second component of my idiocy is my ignorance. I don’t know comics very well, although I am trying to bring my knowledge up to speed. In that regard, the recommendations of PtP have proved helpful, but my true mentor has been an uber dork in the Philadelphia area that shall only be known as the Inscrutable Dr. Yamada (pictured). He’s the one who feeds me 100 Bullets trade paperbacks and Desolation Jones trade paperbacks and makes sure I understand what a trade paperback is. But remediation is a slow process and, really, I’m still pretty comics dumb.

Figure 2: The Inscrutable Dr. Yamada

The point of my ramblings: don’t expect a particularly nuanced view of World War Hulk. Don’t expect a discussion of how WWH is an allegory for fallibility of all human concepts of the good but that Watchmen did it much better. Don’t expect any attempt to place WWH in any kind of historical context. History is for bitches.

I’m not able to speak to any of that, and I don’t care about it in the least. Here’s what I want to see out of World War Hulk, in outline format.

I. Hulk Smash

A. Prelude (brief)

i. Why Hulk Smashes

ii. Who Hulk Hopes to Smash

B. Actual Smashing

i. The general public

ii. Famous landmarks

iii. Bitch Ass Tony Stark

iv. Reed Richards, former hero, now dick

v. Any other cool shit that gets in the way of smashing i-iv

vi. Hulk turning on and smashing lame extraterrestrial gladiator friends

C. Black Bolt gagged and tied to outside of weird ass spaceship

D. Angst among targets of Smashing (brief)

II. Heroes Smash

A. Ghost Rider using hellfire and big chains in a failed attempt to derail Hulk smashing

B. Stop or contain Hulk in epic smash escalation

C. Involvement of Thor

Figure 3: Komar gets it

Please note that “plot” and “themes” and any other wise guy shit are not in the outline. Frankly, if you need plot to enjoy a four month arc of Hulk smashing, you need to stop re-reading Ender’s Game and go to a strip club. The only standard on which one can judge WWH is whether it succeeds in its obvious goal of being the Tucker Max of 2007 Comics. Tucker Max is many things, but subtle isn’t one of them.

Figure 4: Lame as hell but captivating

But while you may be disgusted by my preoccupation with smashing and my disdain for anything even remotely intellectual, I do hope you appreciate the effort and standards I bring into determining whether the smashing is any good. For example, kindly note that I’ve clearly and accurately singled out the two gentlemen most in need of smashing. I hope we all understand that if WWH ends without Richards and Stark getting repeatedly and brutally smashed, it must be deemed a complete failure. I didn’t read Civil War as a point of pride, but I have figured out that Ironman has been accumulating about a year’s worth of Grade A smash-worthy karma. Even I understand that any time a comic character vaguely resembles a Republican, he’s running into a critical beat down sooner rather than later, which, as a Republican, he obviously deserves.

But the guy I want to see smashed the worst is Reed Richards, for a couple reasons. One, I have a crush on Sue Storm and Richards is way too much of an herb for her. Two, his character in Ultimate Alliance is one of the more overrated video game characters I have played. Those extendo fists are slow as hell, and there’s not a single attack he has that some other character doesn’t do more effectively. Yet all the FF dorks over at IGN keep telling me he’s “one of the best midrange characters in the game.” Whatever—those dudes suck dick for rocks.

Figure 5: You see it

But the most important reason Reed Richards needs to be smashed epically is that he has turned into a very effective and convincing dick. I have read the Illuminati, and Reed’s dickness in those issues borders on the sublime. Who tries to collect the Infiniti Gems? With a 700 IQ, you can’t figure out that’s a bad idea? And not using the Gauntlet to start wrecking shit and fucking Emma Frost just reinforces the notion that he’s somehow, amazingly, improbably, both a dick and a pussy. Now he’s trying to take out some kid who adopts coyote puppies? Man, this dude sucks. Marvel has done a brilliant job making him into the dour assistant principal whose only job is to hand out detentions and who becomes amazingly bitter and Machiavellian as a result. My assistant principal was Keith Godshall (not pictured), and, God, did he need to be smashed. I’ll be thinking of Doc Godshall every time a green fist literally flattens Richards.

Figure 6: Not Doc Godshall, but the closest Google Image could get me

My plan for the next four months is to buy everything with WWH on the cover except the Gamma Corps, which just looks retarded. I intend to write up my thoughts about every 4 issues, or whenever I get so terrified of my book manuscript that I need to do something else.

Best Music Video Of The Year

2007-04-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

Snow Patrol - Signal Fire (from the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack)

2007-04-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Emotional manipulation is nothing new in a comic book industry that was once ripe with melodrama. I remember a comic with Giant Man scaling a building, as he’s yelling “The Wasp is in one of these rooms! But which one! WHICH ONE!” Even as a kid, I would think “Is it really that serious, dude?”

Of course it was that serious. In those days it was all about suspense. There was a time where Stan Lee would essentially end his plotlines in the middle of an issue. This meant that he’d have the start a new one that would end at the climax, not to be resolved until next issue, yet not as cheap as the Out-of-nowhere-last-page-cliffhanger © Vaughan/Johns. The emotion of superhero comics was anxiety for decades. Not necessarily for the characters, but for the readers.

This eventually changed, and superheroes comics fought each other over who could have the most personality, emotional, and mental flaws (Cyclops won). This dark generation has seemingly given birth to the slightly more hopeful, yet decidedly more EMO superhero. These titans that used to spit jive at Galactus, laugh at Dr. Doom’s mommy issues, and randomly whoop the Kingpin’s ass just to remind him of the consequences of selling their identities – well now they can’t seem to Stop. Fucking. Crying.

Superman cries on at least 5 covers a year. I think that it’s a DC mandate at this point. I think Batman was crying at some point during Infinite Crisis. Then we had Captain America crying because he never hot-linked a youtube link to his myspace account. Or something along those lines, I forget. Now we have the Hulk shedding tears over his new chick. All macho posturing aside, it just seems too damn lazy for me. “Look, they’re crying, so you know it’s a life changing moment”. Y’know, pretty much the type of stuff that films are filled with to this day.

Did Cap really need to start crying because the 9/11 brigade jumped him? Let’s forget that this is Captain fucking America and he must have seen worse shit his first day on the ground during WW2. I truly believe, the scene would’ve worked better without the streaming Steve Dillon tears. I feel the same way about Hulk #107. We’re given the first glimpse into the Hulk’s thoughts in 14 issues. He’s angry (a constant), sad (frequently), and feels like dying. This is big. The Hulk, no matter what he’s been through, has never felt like dying. That was always “Puny” Banner’s deal. It’s even been said that the Hulk constitutes not only Banner’s anger, but also his survival instinct, which makes suicide impossible. A suicidal Hulk is the only thing that’s unprecedented about a largely derivative storyline. But just in case you didn’t get it, let’s throw on some tears. This visual emotional manipulation in every dramatic film. It’s not even a foreign phenomenon in comics. It does seem like they’re just stacking them on top of each other at this point. I never thought I’d long for a day when these characters would just man up and hit something.

Superman Retires

2007-04-14T16:43:00.001-07:00

Hey woman! Hey woman!

I want to make a bold prediction.

2007-04-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

Zemo will return to Thunderbolts sooner than later. If I were Marvel, I would use all the shit that's happened to Osborn in the last few months (and his being usurped by the rest of the 'Bolts) as a reason for him to become THE Supervillain for 2008 (or '09), put Zemo in charge of the Thunderbolts again, have the T-bolts be integral in bringing down Osborn, and vindicate all them motherfuckers.

'Cept for Penance. He'll never feel better.

First Look at the Iron Man Prototype Suit

2007-04-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

Not bad.

Words Fail Me

2007-04-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Marshall Rogers (January 22, 1950 - March 25, 2007)

2007-03-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Nobody drew a better Joker than him...

MARSHALL ROGERS DIES

Comics have lost another luminary. Details are still sketchy, but word came earlier today that Marshall Rogers died yesterday or Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Rogers was born on January 22nd, 1950 in Flushing, New York.

From “DC Profiles #26” which appeared in 1978 (courtesy of the Marshall Rogers Fan Site):

Of all DC's rapidly rising new stars, Marshall Rogers' ascent has been swiftest of all. In less than a year, Marshall has gone from back feature artist to first-stringer on Detective Comics and Mr. Miracle.

Marshall almost didn't make it to comics. His studies in art school concentrated on architecture, but after two years of studying designing parking lots and shopping centers, Marshall decided "the world wasn't ready for another Frank Lloyd Wright" and left school seeking fame and fortune in the comic field.

Unfortunately, the comics world was not yet ready for Marshall Rogers. For the next two years, he worked in a hardware store while doing occasional illustrations for mass circulation magazines and sharpening his artistic skills.

Apparently, those two years did the trick. Marshall broke into comics, landing a stint pencilling for Marvel's Britain weeklies.

Not long after, Marshall showed up at DC Comics, portfolio in hand, and was given his first assignment: a two part Tales of the Great Disaster story for Weird War Tales. That was followed by some mystery stories, a Tales of Krypton piece and a four part feature in Detective Comics featuring a new villain named The Calculator. His work on the latter led Editor Julie Schwartz to hand Marshall a real plum for a newcomer: pencilling the book length Batman versus the Calculator story in Detective Comics. What came next surprised even Marshall. The powers that be assigned Marshall to Detective as the regular penciller. And he almost immediately picked up the art chores on the newly-revived Mr. Miracle book as well.

"What I try to do," Marshall told DC Profiles, "is first think of what's been done before and then I discard that and try to approach it from a completely different angle." After looking over Marshall Rogers' work, we'd have to say he's found his different angle.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Rogers’ career covered many different characters, Rogers is best known for his Batman work when collaborating with writer Steve Englehart. The two first worked together on the character in Detective Comics #471-#476 (inked by Terry Austin), and for years, their version of the character was considered to be the definitive one – a dark, brooding hero who stayed to the shadows and flowed with a natural grace.

An architect by training, Rogers' work always stood out for its attention to detail, from the cityscapes of Gotham and articulated (and realistic) muscles of the heroes, to the different techniques he would employ, from bold blacks and zipatone to a wide array of others.

Rogers work was seen in many other comics from the major publishers including brief runs on DC's Mr. Miracle, Marvel’s Silver Surfer, and Dr. Strange as well as a wide variety of independent titles: Detectives, Inc., Coyote (again with Englehart), his own Capt. Quick and the Foozle, and Scorpio Rose.

Rogers left comics for a period in the early ‘90s to work in videogames, but returned later in the decade, where his work was seen in projects such as Green Lantern: Evil’s Might and most recently, Marvel Westerns: Strange Westerns Starring The Black Rider, and Batman: Dark Detective, a continuation of his and Englehart’s story from Detective Comics two and a half decades earlier. The two were reportedly considering a third installment of the larger "Dark Detective" story.

No Alarms And No Surprises

2007-03-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is strange to write on a blog but…

I miss the comic book universe pre-internet.

One of the biggest reasons I was pro-kill Captain America was not so much because I wanted him to die (I would rather Superman die and stay dead long before I would choose Cap) but because I was impressed with Marvel’s ability to keep this a well guarded secret. Any time Marvel or DC can actually surprise me, no matter what it is, I’m on board.

I love surprises.

I remember the *plink* of the bullet going through Kitty Pryde and hitting the thought to be dead Colossus.

I remember Xorn being revealed to be Magneto.

I remember not knowing that Robin was going to die. (Imagine how that would have played out today. A 10 AM Wednesday post - Newsarama.com interviews Geoff Johns about "A World Without Robin")

Call them cheap tricks. All I know is I read those comics multiple times.

There didn’t used to be so many options. I never fucked with the newsgroups because it was so unorganized and messy but once I went to Newsarama the first time. It was over. Now we have thousands of comic blogs and websites getting their information from Marvel and DC, Previews books, weekly spoilers from Rich Johnston.

Nothing that happens these days are a surprise. Even things like Civil War or Infinite Crisis when we don’t know what the final issue will be like, we know what the editorial landscape will be for the next 3 months.

Sadly, the only pleasure I get like that is from my older brother.

Our basic system is this: I buy all the comics and read them. Then every 3-4 weeks, he comes to my apartment and takes them home with him to read. He doesn’t go to Newsarama or Comic Book Resources or even this blog unless I forward him a link. The only advance comic book knowledge he gets is from me.

So after he finally dives into the weeks of comic books I’ve just given him, I get a ton of phone calls:

“Holy shit!”
“I can’t believe he’s dead”
“YOOOOOOOOO! Why didn’t you tell me?”

I never tell him (Okay, sometimes I tell him what to read first) because I am vicariously living thought his sense of awe and surprise that I have long since lost.

It’s too late for me. I read at least 7 comic websites a day. I am addicted to spoilers. I can’t help it...

The day that Captain America #25 dropped, I didn’t know Captain America died until I actually read the issue because I was on vacation and wasn’t using my computer so I didn’t go to my daily bookmarks list.

I heard all the stories of people being spoiled by Yahoo and NY Daily News.

Even the cashier at Golden Apple tried to spoil it for me assuming I already knew but I was like “Don’t say a thing. I haven’t heard anything about it yet and I haven't read it.”

I got into my friend’s car, read it, said “Oh shit!” and felt like a technological child again.

More fun with the Superfriends

2007-03-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just some more fun

I thought that this was pretty funny but I dunno.
I will finally finish my Storm write up after a 1 yr hiatus

I'm thoroughly convinced that Rick Jones could have prevented Civil War.

2007-03-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

You tell 'em, Ricky.

FROM THE DESK OF TONY STARK

2007-03-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Good Captain.

2007-03-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

So, they killed Captain America the other day.

It's made the news - Hell, they talked about it on the Colbert Report.

We could discuss the thematic implications, the narrative construction - the whole shmear.

We could.

And it would be all over the map.

I'd rather discuss the necessity of killing Captain America.

I'm an old Cap fan. I have almost the entire Mark Gruenwald run, which spanned 1985-1995. I'm talking from the time I was in grade school through my high school years, I was a Captain America fiend. See, Gruenwald didn't run away from the fact that Captain America was a 'man out of time' - or as Paul Jenkins portrayed him in Frontline #11, a dinosaur who no longer represented the people. Gruenwald played into it. He used Cap as an icon, letting his understanding of the evolving American context reflect in Cap's 'stranger in a strange land'. And when Cap had doubts about that context, he took sabbaticals - some forced, some voluntary. See, the question of working for the government came up before - in the 90s it was all about The Commission and Henry Gyrich. And Cap made clear he fought for the people and, ultimately, the American ideal. And when he had doubts, he'd leave his 'office', so to speak, and get his head together.

And once he hashed shit together, and figured out his place in the modern American narrative, he returned, reinvigored, and fought on. So okay, Civil War. Cap's out of step with public opinion, it seems. He surrenders, walks off in cuffs, because he believes at heart he has failed the American people, yadda yadda. He can be in prison, removed, with the possibility of return. It takes him off the stage, gives time to recycle the character, try new stories - which the Marvel people keep saying is the at the heart of this dramatic move...

But giving him the Jack Ruby?

It smacks of a bad marketing ploy.

And I can't decide if that's necessary for the story.

Discuss.

I wish I worked for Marvel's marketing department

2007-03-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

I'm a cheap bastard.

I'm a college student, so I don't have much disposable income.
After beer and food, I don't really have much left in my budget for comics.

Thankfully the owner of my local comic shop is cool and lets me leech off his shelves like the little kid at the news stand in Watchmen. That is, as long as I buy a couple of books every week.

My point being is that this week, as i sat in Quinlan Keep's comfy chair, Marvel made me pick up a whole stack of comics just to keep up with what's going on with the Civil War aftermath. My problem isn't that there was too much coming out, that's never a problem.

The problem was that there wasn't enough!

In every issue, as Tony Stark was trying to pick out the new Avengers lineup, he had a pretty nifty screen showing all of the registered heroes and villains he had to pick from.

As I saw this over and over again, I wondered why I didn't have access to this.

I sat contemplating how easy it would be for Marvel to set up a mini-site with a replica of Stark's database showing exactly what he's looking at. Personally, that would clear up a lot for me. I'm not very well versed in the more denizens of the Marvel universe, and I'm sure that same thing alienated a lot of casual readers from Civil War.

I mean, I had never even heard of Typeface before Frontline, and now I'm supposed to care that he died?

Then the advertising student part of my barin kicked in, and I thought of how much farther they could have gone with this.

Marvel could put a few weeks between Civil War #7 and Mighty Avengers #1 and given readers a chance to guess the new lineup using Tony's database.

They could have made it a contest and given a prize to whoever guessed it right.
I mean, I think it's pretty safe to say that Marvel wouldn't have had to give out shit, because not one single person in their right mind would have picked fuckin' Ares (but I am interested to see where they go with that).

Anyway, the whole contest could have been interesting. The fans would be involved, visiting the site, reading each others' lineups, message board arguing (and from a marketing point of view, reading ads and adding their emails to marvel.com's newsletter).

Quesada and the gang could even choose like 5 of the coolest team combinations and give the winners autographed drawings of their Dream Mighty Avengers. Nerds love shit like that.

I graduate in May.

Gimme a job, Quesada.

Um, about "52" Week #43

2007-03-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

Not like this. Not. like. this.

(Warning: clicking this link = major spoiler)

Have we addressed the Walking Dead argument?

2007-03-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

You know, the one about Michonne's beating and rape.

Basically, I don't think it was out of line. I think it's the expectation that a white writer would purposely abuse a black female character that's causing the anger, not the actual writer's intentions.

We simply don't have enough to go on to say that Kirkman is racist for what happened to Michonne. The Governor, however, might just be. Kirkman made The Governor completely worthless as a human being, and a completely worthless human being acting the way The Governor did is logical. He's a real villain. Making the person that did that to Michonne one of the most vile villains in comics I've seen tells me that Kirkman has his perspective straight.

Now we get into the folks that want Kirkman to take into account the history of black treatment by whites when he writes black characters. These folks aren't accusing Kirkman of being racist, only of being insensitive to their perspective. Basically, what they're asking Kirkman to do is factor in how real-world readers will view anything he does with the black characters he created. It doesn't stop there. These sae folks want Kirkman to not only factor in how they view anything that happens to the black characters, but also how those folks think OTHER folks are gonna view it.

In this month's letter column actually said this:

"If you want the honest truth Mr. Kirkman, a great deal of white readers probably whacked off to that issue."

Let's not even get into if that is true or not just yet. Let's examine the wording.

"If you want the honest truth" tells me I'm going to get a fact or at least the truth about how this reader feels about the issue. But we don't get truth. We get speculation on how THIS reader feels about OTHER readers.

Even more, it tells me that this particular reader may see me in my local comic shop picking up The Walking Dead and assume that I'm going home after I stop off at Walgreens for some cocoa butter and an off-brand dildo so I can fuck myself while watching a character get beaten and raped. Oh great, now I'M paranoid to even be seen reading it. I imagine it's a million times worse for Robert Kirkman, who actually creates it.

So okay, now we can get into whether or not "a great deal of white readers" jerk off to watching a black woman being beaten and raped.

Show of hands?

Just as I thought. Only JRennolds and Uatu.

But seriously, agree or disagree, I wanna hear this. I tell ya what, I'll put it on the blog, and we can discuss it there. I'd like Kirkman to see more than one black/white reader at a time discussing this.

Live From The New York Comic Con

2007-02-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hello kids. The New York Comic Con was this weekend and I have returned to blog about it. I originally didn’t plan on attending. I don’t really have enough money to spend $40 on a ticket to get into a place full of stuff I’d want to buy. Luckily I had a friend who was working a promo gig on the inside and got me in for free (hi Sonya.)

I’ve noticed something similar about the last few entries on this here PTP blog: Lots of words, no pictures. Well, I bring you no shortage of pictures, so heeeeere we go!

The big event.

One thing that always guaranteed at a comicon: you’ll always see a Stormtrooper. There were plenty of these guys walking around.

Times are rough for 1980s toy villains. This guy was all over the place.

Here’s Spidey with some random guy.

There’s just something interesting about this image. Here’s some (Kidrobot?) giant size prototype toy mice.

Even though Blue Beetle is dead and DC goes through Flashes quicker than Destiny’s Child used to replace members or Van Halen replaces lead singers or (insert joke here), their essence still remains.

The car our previous heroes were standing in front of is this 1928 Model A Car-Toon Truck.

Everybody loves the sunshine. Even the scum of the universe.

More Star Wars characters comin’ atcha.

When Stan’s in the house, all the fanboys go craaaaazy! The crowd surrounding Stan The Man was massive and I was lucky to even get this glimpse of a picture.

Neal Adams was there. This sign is proof. I didn’t get a picture of him or any of the other artists, but it was interesting to walk along and match faces to all the familiar names.

I have no idea what this thing is, but I’m willing to bet that its place of origin is Japan.

These are some mannequins displaying some original Star Trek costumes.

No place is complete without a giant Pikachu balloon.

I would like to see speakers attached to it to announce a loud, thunderous “Pika Pika!”

This is a Darkling from The Darkness video game (which is based on the comic book, not the rock band) fighting with…someone tell me what this guy’s name is.

And…who is he?

Here’s a medieval warrior of some sort.

And just in case you’ve started to drift off, I’ve waited to show the main reason to bring a camera to one of these events: The women!

Your narrator with a fair maiden.

All in all, a good time was had. I got in for free and managed to only spend $45 (I bought a few half-price trades & hardcovers to complete my America’s Best Comics collection.) Maybe I can get as lucky for the next show.

The Brilliance and Not-So-Much of New Avengers

2007-02-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

I am as big a Marvel fan as they come when it comes to the PTP. Most of the books I read are Marvel, with the exception of some gems like Justice. One of my favorites month in and month out is New Avengers.

I was never a fan of the Avengers of old. I didn't quite understand how these guys could make up Marvel's greatest heroes with people like Wasp, any version of Hank Pym, Hawkeye, Tigra, War Machine, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, etc, etc. Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, even Hercules, were the only ones who could fit this bill because of their status as Marvel or other icons. The writing was always weak and cliche, and the changing roster did not seem to fully grasp the idea of 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'. Then came Bendis and this idea for Avengers Disassembled. He knew that a book like this should be one of Marvel's biggest comics, no questions asked. He noticed that it wasn't, why it wasn't, and how he could change it up. With Avengers Disassembled, I found the first Avengers book I could enjoy. Finally, it seemed, someone was coming in and changing things for the better. Was the story convoluted and corny in places? Yes, but it was all for the better. I saw the promo image of the new squad and was hyped at the prospect of Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and Wolverine working together as a team. I knew I had myself a new contender for coolest comic book.

From the beginning I thought it was a great idea to have Spider-Man and Wolverine on as full members to the team. These two embody everything cool that the Marvel universe is. Did their inclusion mean that Marvel was jumping on board the 'have all of the big characters join' style of the Justice League in DC? Sure, but why shouldn't they do this? Spider-Man has long been a reserve member to the group and constantly works with them in his books and theirs. Basically he was already an Avenger, now he was just official. The biggest criticism with all of this has been of course Wolverine. One of the things I dislike about comics is that with so much promise, they consistently do things that hinder why lots of people do not take them seriously. These 2 HUGE topics can be discussed and argued in another post (coming soon to the PTP board near you), and they are as follows: Continuity and death. Wolverine suffers from a very convoluted continuity, as he appears in 2 solo books, Astonishing, and New Avengers. Would someone like to explain to me how this is at all possible? Thing is though, I got over it because of the sheer coolness it is of having Wolverine be on a different team interacting with different characters. Did anyone else think it was sweet when Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider teamed up as The New Fantastic Four? (which btw should be an ongoing monthly book post World War Hulk b/c that'd be too fuckin cool... But that is also a post for a different day)

The rest of the team was icing on the cake. Spider-Woman? Cool, I didn't know anything about her. Luke Cage? Always thought he was cool, I was pumped. The issues with them was too cool for words. Them breaking up a fight at The Raft? Fighting the Wrecker? The conspiracy with SHIELD? Ronin and all the damn ninjas? Sweet.

The Sentry? Not so much.

Wait a minute? What?

The problems began with Sentry. I loved the idea of this team having a Superman-level powerhouse on the team, and when he first appeared in the first issue, and first arc for that matter, it was sweet. But after the arc centering around him, he was never mentioned again. Wasn't he supposed to be a big part of this team? I only remember him being in that one arc before the end. This however was not the only problem.

Ronin was non introduced until the third arc, and we still never got to see her interact with the group other than that. Luke Cage had great banter with Spider-Man, but his voice was not being heard as promised. The pacing with who broke everyone out of the prison and the triple conspiracy Spider-Woman was not good, and reminded me a lot of Lost. I am not knocking Bendis by any means, but things really took a long time to explain and the idea of the group seemed to be better than the actual comic book. You remember the Xorn/Magneto issues? Or the recent #26 mindfuck? How about the baffling as hell explanation of The Sentry or trying to force Spider-Woman as a major character down our throats?

Basically this book suffered from being very hit-or-miss. Things picked up again with the Captain America and Luke Cage issues of New Avengers Disassembled. And with the recent release of #27, things are definitely on the rising. Iron Fist, a new Ronin, and Dr. Strange as Avengers with Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, and Luke Cage as the leader is fucking awesome. Here's to hoping that the talent stays up, and remains a force to be reckoned with, other than just looking pretty on the outside.

Prep Time Posse

2007-01-23T14:19:00.000-08:00

Hear this, true believers...

I discovered a hidden gem in Eastern Sacramento this past weekend. A little place tucked away and hidden along the commercial corridor of the "Howe 'bout Arden" area, nestled in between, I shit you not, the Chicken & Waffle place and Larry's Comfort Shoes. The place itself, Great Escape Gaming, is, as the name suggests, primarily focused on gaming and providing all of the little goodies a good gaming retailer should provide. But there is a "wall" as well as the area called the "back issue bins". I'm using those quote marks as finger quote thingeys here because the "wall" is actually a 10'x5' book shelf about 2' deep, which holds no more than 3 dozen current titles. The "back issue bins" is comprised of 8 or so long boxes, looking like they've been handled lovingly by Ben Grimm, packed ))TIGHT(( and only featuring about 1/2 teh titles of the "wall". As I said, comics are not the focus of the place, but dammit they are my newest FAVORITEST lcs.

I only discovered them by leafing through the Yellow Pages, looking under "COMIC BOOKS" and finding their listing there among the 8 or so shops sprinkled throoughout the greater Sack. I was dialing shops to locate who had back issues of the MAX series PUNISHER title, specifically issues 29 & 30 "The Slavers" story arc. They were the only folks who answered in the affirmative and it was on my way home so I stopped on in. They had the books picked out for me and waiting and as I bellied up to purchase my couple o' books, ready to plunk down 3-3.50 per, and this sweet, sweet man behind the counter utters the magic words, "You know the deal with our back-issues, right?"

"Uhh..no?"

"Our back issues, those there in those boxes, are $0.99 each. If you buy 5 you get 1 free, if you buy 10 you get 3 free."

"..."

"So you DIDN'T know, then?"

"..."

"You all right?"

"..."

"I SAID...YOU...ALLLLL...RIGHT??!!"

I'm not afriad to admit it. I hugged him. I am not ashamed of that. The kiss on the lips may have been a bit much, but...

So anyhoo, I went over to those greasy tattered long boxes and took a serious look around the collection, trying to see what damage I could do. Several guys looking like Seattle American Idol contestants walked back and forth past me into and out of the large gaming room attached to the store proper, and I had the sudden realization that there but for the grace of Yaweh go I. 9:30 on a Monday night, this place was PACKED with folks gettin their RPG on, with HeroCLIX and D&D Miniatures looking like they were the game du jour. I have to admit...and of this I am most definitely ashamed...I was a little curious about the world of HeroCLIX. Briefly...but I definitely felt it.

But that is all digression. Here is what I got for 2,163 pennies:

DAREDEVIL 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 (Hardcore)
DAREDEVIL 58
DAREDEVIL 71, 72, 73, 74 (The Decalogue)
DAREDEVIL 76, 77 (The Murdock Papers)
SLEEPER 1
PUNISHER "The Tyger" 1 (Severin bitches!)
PUNISHER 29, 30 (The Slavers conclusion)
PUNISHER 31, 32, 33 (Barracuda) (!!!)
JSA 42, 53, 54, 55, 68
Y: THE LAST MAN 25 (The ONE I don't have, that I couldn't find anywhere, the one that had me stopped on 24...waiting...waiting...waiting...)
BATMAN: DETECTIVE COMICS 819 (Even rarer than Y:TLM #25)

Off the new wall:
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN 4
THE SPIRIT 2

So, to sum up: 28 comics for $21.63, for an average of 0.77 per comic, with 2 of those comics taking up $6.00 of said amount...

I know...do the math. It don't quite work out. I know, you guys. I know. I'm tired of fighting it, I've taken the gloves off...however with this place having such an incredible sale on back issues, coupled with people running the cash register who don't quite understand how those sales work, I now have new favoritest local comic shop. Next time I'm there, I'm gonna try and figure out if I can work it so they pay me to take books out of there.

DC & Marvel Have Got Jokes

2007-01-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

Wanna hear something funny?

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #1 came out in July 2005. We are still awaiting issue #5.
Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #1 came out in December 2005. We are still waiting for issue #3.
Wonder Woman (Vol. 3) #1 came out in June 2006. We are still waiting for issue #4. It has since been moved to a bimonthly schedule. Um, what? Batman and Superman can have multiple titles running smoothly but Wonder Woman needs special attention. Now that The O.C. has been canceled Allan Heinberg will have time to crank these out.
The Ultimates Vol. 2 began in December 2004. Still waiting for issue #13. Did The Authority take this long?
We are up to issue #6 in the relaunch of Justice League of America and they still haven't fought together.
Joe Queseda, Tom Breevort and Mark Millar still think both arguments are being equally represented in Civil War.

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

2006-12-28T16:22:00.000-08:00

Merry New Year!! ©Billy Ray Valentine

On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: A new jownt for the prep time posseeeee....

As this monff has been ridiculoid and I have been devoid of much extra wompum, my comic collecting has suffered. All that changed, however, last Saturday as I strolled on in to my LCS and asked for the "long box of love" that was my saver bin. The fine fellow behind the counter promptly heaped two piles in front of me: one pile was comprised of my regular weekly pulls, and the other was comprised of even more of my regular weekly pulls. I really had no idea of how long it had been since I was last in the shop and emptying out said saver bin until I noticed the 4 copies of the superbly published DC comic "52". Perhaps you've heard of it? If so, you'd know that it is, indeed, a weekly comic. And as any good little ptp'er is aware: 4 sequentially numerated weekly comics doth a month make. Yes friends, it had been a full month since I was last in there purchasing my babies. I was taken aback...surely I hadn't let a month go by without reading anything new to tide me over.

No, actually I hadn't.

I had bought a couple books here and there each week, just a quick little fix here and there to tide me over. I bought the Russian Vor crime-drama trade "Red Warrior: Assassin For The Thieves World" a few weeks back because it looked decent. I also picked up a Daredevil trade, the first one of the recent run that featured Echo, to help me with my Matt Murdock addiction. There was also that splendid Metamorpho 4-issue limited series that my good brother Phenompyrus hooked me up with, all Kovert Kristofer Kringle style. Good look. So there was definitely some comic reading going on in this past hectic month but the heftiness of my purchase last Saturday clearly illustrated to me that I am waaayyy behind and in serious need of catch-up.

Here's what I got:

DC
ALL NEW ATOM 6
BATMAN 659
BATMAN 660
BATMAN: CONFIDENTIAL 1
BATMAN: DETECTIVE COMICS 826
BATMAN & THE SPIRIT 1
CHECKMATE 9
JONAH HEX 14
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 4
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1
SECRET SIX 6
SHADOWPACT 8
SPIRIT 1
THE WATCHMEN 5
THE WATCHMEN 6
52 30
52 31
52 32
52 33

WILDSTORM
MIDNIGHTER 2

VERTIGO
EXTERMINATORS 14

BONGO
THE SIMPSONS 125

IMAGE
CROSS-BRONX 4
FEAR AGENT 9

DARK HORSE
THE ESCAPISTS 6

MARVEL
DAREDEVIL 62
DAREDEVIL 63
DAREDEVIL 64
DAREDEVIL 65
DAREDEVIL 66
DAREDEVIL 67
DAREDEVIL 68
DAREDEVIL 69
DAREDEVIL 70
IMMORTAL IRON FIST 1
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN 3
MS. MARVEL 10
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN 32
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN 33
THE PUNISHER 41
THE PUNISHER 42
ULTIMATE POWER 2
CIVIL WAR: CAPTAIN AMERICA 24
CIVIL WAR: FANTASTIC FOUR 541
CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE 9
CIVIL WAR: IRON MAN 14
CIVIL WAR: IRON MAN / CAPTAIN AMERICA: CASUALTIES OF WAR
CIVIL WAR: WAR CRIMES 1

TRADES
DAREDEVIL "WAKE UP"
THE GOON "MY MURDEROUS YOUTH"
THE GOON "HEAPS OF RUINATION"

The Goon trades went to my man lonesome as part of the aforementioned Secret Santa but the rest are sitting right next to me, along with a set of current-sized boards and bags, just begging to be read. And then read again. As a personal challenge to myself I'm going to try and review every single goddamned one of those son-of-a-bitching cock sucker motherfuckers as a Holiday gift to you guys, me prep-time bredren. I haven't followed any COTW post closely for fear of ***SPOILERS***, so I'm big in the dark on any major developments in the MARVEL U. But seeing as how I'll probably be 46 by the time Civil War #6 comes out, what do I really have to lose?!? OOOhhh...burn!!!

As a discussion piece, what do you guys think of what Joey Q. had to say here: http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/NewJoeFridays27.html ?

2006-12-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Javits Center Screw Job Redux: The New York Comic Con

It's that time of year again. Grown men are getting into fist fights over the most coveted gifts of the season, credit card companies are laughing all the way to the bank, I've developed a borderline unhealthy fondness for the Scotch in the liquor cabinet....and the organizers of the NYCC are filling my inbox with advertising wrapped up in shiny little bundles of hype.

The great question of Life, the Universe and Everything, is this:

After last year's debacle should I bother going? Or will I be left standing outside again, because incompetent event management still hasn't mastered basic math and will be leaving the local fire inspector to pull an Earl Hebner?

I'd like to say I'm hopeful, but considering that I lost a good 6 hours of my life (2.5 of which was spent staring at the costumed patron ahead of me in line's spandex clad back fat, try to gouge that visual out of your cerebral cortex) , the cost of those 2 useless preregistrations and $200 in travel expenses, that solitary free ticket and a small box of promo materials I was sent just seems like the fanboy/girl equivalent of Vince Mcmahon's infamous "Bret screwed Bret" speech.

I'm leaving the decision to you, fellow PTP-ers and random net surfers:

Should I stay or should I go?

Trying to weigh the options without some outside perspective has made me need some more of that Scotch.

comics in college?

2006-12-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hey, Kids.

In August, as I looked through my school's schedule of courses, I stumbled upon a word that I never expected to find in a class description:

"comics."

Yes, in the fall semester of 2006, the University of Missouri offered a class called "Art History 1105: How to Read Comics."

Now I'm a senior, I only need a couple more classes to graduate, and at the time I hadn't taken one class that wasn't required. I needed to fill up 12 hours anyway, so I signed up. After the first day of class (despite finding that the syllabus was written in comic sans) I decided the class would be worth taking just to see how studying comics would even work. I've been reading and drawing comics for as long as I can remember, so I figured a new perspective on graphic storytelling would probably be a good thing for me.

Overall, the whole experience was kind of... strange.
For once, I only had to buy a couple of the required texts because I already owned or had read most of them.
I've been in a lot of classrooms, but before this semester, I had never been one of the most well-read people in any of 'em.

The main textbooks were Scott McCloud's"Understanding Comics"
and Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art."
If you haven't read either of these, I highly recommend taking a look through them. Both McCloud and Eisner have a very calculated way of looking at "sequential art" that manages to break down comics without tearing them apart.
After reading those, we went through other graphic novels such as Maus, Steven Seagle's "It's a Bird," "Ghost World," and whole heap of others. The strangest thing I found about the class was how much the professor liked Frank Miller. We spent about half the semester discussing Sin City.

The class demographics were pretty weird, too.
Most of the students fit into one of three categories:

1. Art school kids
mostly female. majority came to class with half-finished paintings in tow. liked to talk about color and composition.

2. Comic book geeks
95% male. majority had long hair and came to class with Japanese phrasebooks. liked to talk about Batman.

3. Slackers looking for an easy class
Shit, most of them didn't even show up half the time, and when they did they slept.

I like to think I'm a comfortable mix between 2 and 3.

But anyway, yesterday I took my comic class final. We were given two comics to analyze, an American Splendor comic called "Pre-dawn Ride," and a Kurtzman story called "Corpse on the Imjin."

To give you an idea about how we approached writing on comics, here is my final paper. While reading, keep in mind that I forgot we even had a paper, and i wrote this in its entirety 20 minutes before the test started.

Realism in the Fantastic Four

"After the classic era of the Golden Age comic came to a close, a new style of comic storytelling emerged. This new era built upon the groundwork laid by the Golden Age and developed more intricate artwork, themes and characterization. Lead by writers and illustrators such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, this new style of comics took the subject matter and characterization of comics to places that the medium had never previously tread. Known as the Silver Age, this new style of comic brought an element of realism to the fantasy world of superheroes. While there are several differences between Golden and Silver Age artwork, I feel that the most profound divergence between the two eras is the Silver Age’s use of realism.

While the Golden Age of comics depicted a world purely of fantasy, the Silver Age attempted to bring all the elements of Golden Age superheroes into a realistic setting. Issue No. 51 of The Fantastic Four exemplifies Lee and Kirby’s use of realism, both through it’s physical setting and its characterization. In most Golden Age comics, the settings were fictitious cities such as Metropolis or Gotham City. In the Silver Age, however, most stories took place in actual real-world settings. In the case of The Fantastic Four and most other Marvel comics, the story takes place in New York City. By using an actual city as a setting, the landscape and surroundings of the characters are already defined. These Silver age stories utilize a world with which many readers are already familiar and creates the potential for more dynamic landscapes. Golden Age panel backgrounds tended to be flat, primary colored scenes of generic city backdrops, but The Silver Age’s pre-defined setting gave artists the opportunity to elaborately recreate preexisting scenes in their panels.

I feel that the main method through which Lee and Kirby incorporate realism into the story is through the characterization. Unlike superheroes of the Golden Age, The Fantastic Four were once ordinary people. Instead of being super powered beings from another planet, or wronged citizens vowing to fight crime, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben were unwillingly exposed to gamma radiation and given amazing powers. While this event is pure fantasy, the fact that it happened to ordinary people creates an interesting dynamic for both the reader and the story itself. The amazing transformation that The Fantastic Four underwent could have potentially happened to anyone. This captures the reader’s imagination and allows him or her to say “what if…” and easily imagine him or herself in the place of any of Lee’s four characters, playing into the role of comics as pure fantasy.

Contrarily, writer Stan Lee also makes the Fantastic Four characters appear to fit into the realistic setting of New York, by having them deal with realistic problems. Even though the story of The Fantastic Four could never actually happen, Stan Lee was able to make his characters relatable by giving them real life problems. Because they were ordinary people before gaining their powers, the characters of The Fantastic Four had to do more than just fight crime, as many Golden Age superheroes did. These characters instead had adjust to their new abilities while carrying on life in normal society. This is especially hard for Ben Grimm, who is transformed into the gigantic orange creature known as The Thing. Issue No. 51 entitled This Man, This Monster, deals purely with Grimm’s difficulty to cope with his new appearance, changing the character into somewhat of a tragic hero. For the first time in comics history, the Silver Age created a sense of sympathy in the reader for superheroes.

The realism in this story almost plays a dominant role over super powers. Reed and Sue never use their powers once, and most of the action in the story is merely dialogue. While there are fantasy elements involved in the story, the majority of the story takes place in normal New York society, and forces its characters to try and adapt. The Thing is shown lumbering around in the rain feeling sorry for himself while Johnny, the Human Torch is trying to fit in on a college campus. While Johnny does encounter conflict during the story, it is not with a supervillain, but instead with a jealous jock who feels The Human Torch might take his status as Big Man on Campus. There is no physical fighting involved in the story and instead focuses upon the emotions of the characters. The main villain in the story does not even attempt to fight any of the protagonists. Instead, he thinks to himself about the errors of his ways and sacrifices himself to save Mr. Fantastic.

This attempt to include realism in this issue of The Fantastic Four exemplifies the changes that were seen in the Silver Age of comics. Though the story was fantasy, the realism included within its pages makes the story more relatable. By building upon the foundation laid by the Golden Age, comic creators such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were able to totally transform the comic medium into an entirely new storytelling medium."

I could go into a lot more detail about the class, but I'm putting off studying for a final that actually matters. Comment away, and I'll let y'all know anything else you want to find out.
-duD

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

2006-12-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

I haven't bought any books in 2+ weeks.

I haven't written nary a thing about comics, nor have I written any original comic story ideas in that same time span of at least 14 days. I occupied 20 or so of the previous 20,160 minutes by a rough and loose doodling of random characters, none of which I liked, or kept for any further reference, during a "state of the business" conference call. Those 1,200 seconds, out of a possible 1,209,600, comprise the sum total of my comics-related drawing during the past fortnight. I haven't even picked up a book to look at. That's what strikes me as the most odd. I haven't been tempted to grab one and go over an old favorite storyline. There has been no want to review a great splash or a perfect rendering of Superhero X taking out the nameless faceless goons of Badguy Y 's clone army. There hasn't even been a moment recently in which I've staggered, clench-cheeked and tip-toed, over to my shortboxes, and with furious anxiousness scoured them back to front for the absolutely quintessential example of "A Book To Pinch Loafs By". Easily a 2,700 second gig for a book or three.

Could this be the end of the unrequited comic book addiction I have been living with these past 6 months?
Is it possibly true that the brilliantly white hot burning of my collecting fervor has begun to cool itself off?
Is it really about the comics, or is it about having something to collect and to buy?
Should I no longer consider legally changing my name to Comicbook Jones?

I don't know the answer to these questions my friends, but I do know that I am afraid. Oh yes...so very afraid.

**horrified screams and shock-filled gasps erupt from the chorus**

Its not like I don't have any books that I haven't read and that I'm just tired of re-reading all the stuff I've already poured over. That may be true of approximately slightly less that half of a quarter of a third of my collection, but its definitely not indicative of how I view my "read already"s. The books that I happen to read that don't happen to impress me, I get rid of. They're either left in a box for my nephew or they're left by a mailbox or a newspaper vendor that I happen to stop at. In the Summer I had gotten into the habit of leaving books I had no interest in keeping in the lobby area of our neighborhood rec center when I would pick my daughter up from ballet. I was always jazzed whenever, while walking to the room my daughter was in, I saw a couple of kids plunked down on the couches crowded around the one kid with a THING or EXCALIBUR held up in front of his face. For a book to be kept in my collection, it needs to be considered pretty special by me and have serious replay value. I don't view any of them any different now...I just have little-to-no interest in spending the time reading them.

That brings me to the books I have in my collection that I haven't read yet. The majority of these are collections of a series of which I am at a stopping point, or am way ahead of. For example: I have Y: THE LAST MAN 1-24, 26-29, 32-37. I have stopped and have been all Jack Bauer and stuck on 24 for about 2 months now. I would love to know the rest of this compelling story, but not at the expense of missing even one step along the way. It is anathema to the way I think to willingly drop a hole right smack in the middle of storyline. This has been an issue for me in starting books that are about 2+ years into their run. (That's 31,536,000 seconds for all yall sleepers out there). I have collected various THE PUNISHER issues from 16-35, and then 38-40. I started reading this book at 38 and really, really liked it. So I picked up back issues when I could find them during 50% off sales. So now I have nowhere near a complete set and one or two issues from about 4 different story arcs. I know I started out at 38 and am way behind but for me that means that I will have to get everything complete and in order before I can even think of filling in this book's history. It would be a frustrating and nonplusing endeavor.

I'm weird like that about story arcs and series' runs, I guess. I think there's something in there that if I examine deep enough I will understand a little bit more about whether I'm more of a comic book fan or a collector of things. But as I sit here and think of just why I haven't had that same compelling urge to stop by the shop on the way home or at lunch, plopping down $15 here and $9 there, eagerly getting inside the door and slipping the scotch taped bag off some new mysteriousness...I would have to honestly say I think its one half where I'm at in my various collections. Another half knowing I have many other monetary obligations this month. Still another half is convinced that this is just a temporary phase that like all things will too come to pass. And yet there are still a couple more halves that just has actually been enjoying the other things around me that had taken a smaller role in the last 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59.9 seconds : work, children, work, food, sleep, work and sex. And work, too.

Oh yeah...this blog took me 1/4,380 of a year to write it, so maybe its coming back?

Flash Thompson: Nerd Revenge Fantasy

2006-11-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

Some guys just can't win. In 1962, Peter Parker was one of those guys. Bullies bullied him and girls ignored him – with the exception of his elderly Aunt, and that really doesn't count. Puny, broke and lonely, young Peter was the kind of guy you could relate to. I assume this was either because the men writing him could relate to him too, or they just knew their audience really, really well.

"The 'T' stands for 'Talk to the HAND, Parker!' Haw Haw!"

Then, in an ironic twist of fate, young Peter is granted superpowers; He goes from zero to hero, starts hanging out with the FF and The Avengers, and marries a super model. Oh, and that bully who used to torment him in high school becomes his #1 fan. And people say superhero comics are just adolescent male power fantasies!

That bully had a name, and a pretty badass one at that: Flash Thompson. He is the subject of this blog.

The thing about Flash Thompson is, back in High School, he was kind of an asshole. Now, nevermind the fact that back in high school everyone was an asshole (this is to prepare you for the real world, where everyone is an asshole). No, Flash was more like THE asshole. Girls, cars, popularity, football, etc. – everything that guys like Peter Parker spend their tormented youths hating and envying. And poor Flash Thompson has been paying for it ever since.

What follows Flash Thompson's Big Man on Campus years is a comeuppance of ridiculously epic proportions. He goes to war and is haunted by mystic assassins. He suffers serious bouts of depression and becomes an alcoholic. In love, he can only manage to pick up Peter's sloppy seconds. He gets in a drunk-driving accident – two of them, in fact – and ends up brain damaged to the point where he forgets what few redeeming qualities he'd managed to muster up over the years. Oh, and as it turns out, his father was an abusive alcoholic, so high school probably wasn't all that great for Flash Thompson after all. At least Peter had a decent home life. As if all this wasn't enough, it turns out all this time his first name is actually Eugene. I mean, seriously.

Daaaaaaaamn, homie! In high school you was the maaaaaaaan, homie!
...What the fuck happened to you?

You know what, I get it. I really do. These are superhero stories, and the golden rule of superhero stories is good guys win, bad guys lose. Somewhere very early on in life Flash Thompson must have fallen into the 'bad guy' category, and has been awarded his just deserts time and time again, despite many desperate grasps for redemption. But there's a line between justice and torment; it's actually quite a broad one, I think. And I can't help but wonder if the Peter Parker types reading and writing Spider-Man comics throughout the years don't derive just a little bit of pleasure out of making a whipping boy out of Flash Thompson. It's kind of sick, when you think about it.

You know, there was a brief period in the early 90s or so where Flash and Peter were actually pretty good friends. I always liked that development. Beyond just being a cool twist on the status quo, I think it showed a real willingness for growth. Not only in the characters of Peter Parker and Flash Thompson, but in superhero comics in general. Finally, we were ready to let go of all of the adolescent anguish we'd been harboring in our hearts and move on. You know, forgiving those that trespassed against us and what not. It didn't last. The nerds were still angry, and somebody had to pay. So once again Flash Thompson was reverted to his adolescent state, dragging us all down with him. He is currently a recovering alcoholic/functioning retard teaching a gym class at his old high school.

Some guys just can't win.

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

2006-11-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

CONNOR HAWKE: DRAGON'S BLOOD

Written by: CHUCK DIXON
Illustrated by: DEREC DONOVAN

I picked up this book on a whim yesterday, purchased solely because I was in a comic shop killing time while waiting for a prescription to be filled. I'm unfamiliar with the character and the character's history. I am assuming that Connor is Arsenal, right? Going on that assumption I purchased this time-filler so I could brush up a little on Arsenal, seeing as how he's a new JLAer. It's a breezy and enjoyable little book, basically the set up for the limited run which is supposedly a gathering of the greatest archers in the world to have a throw-down commemorating an ancient Chinese legend of a lone archer who blah blah blah...trust me, the whole reason behind the gathering of all of these archers is most definitely NOT going to be the reason they were all given. There will no doubt be some nefarious and diabolical goings on in Shanghai by issue 3 or so, and look for Connor Hawke to be the one taken most by surprise.

While that brief summation may sound glib, please don't think I am in any way disappointed in the story progression so far. Its quite the contrary, actually. Mr. Dixon once again shows he ha s a mastery of the comic book format in setting the stage succinctly and with clever devices in this issue. The whole re-telling of the Chinese legend smoke screen was a great excuse for the artist, who we'll talk more of later, to let loose with a great splash page of ancient Chinese warriors getting their full-tilt sword swangin boogie on. There are magics both black and white; there are dragons a blazin; and it is a great little story within a story that serves up a good 5 pages of candy for the eyes.

And speaking of those eye sweets, the illustrator Derec Donovan, a name I was previously unfamiliar with, has an obvious talent that is on display on some pages, and still on other pages implies the underdeveloped hand of a novice. While the previously mentioned battle scenes were lush and fully developed, there are instances in which his draftsmanship is faulty and his ceilings and floors vanish into horizon lines that are strikingly mismatched. I assume he is of a younger age because he has not mastered the correct drawing of a business suit, usually a clear indicator of age range. Most notable, however, is that Connor Hawke is shown as being markedly Asian. As I stated when starting off, I am unfamiliar with this character so I may be int he wrong but...he's not Asian is he?

Anyway, the books a fun little kick in the po-po. If you got 3 bones to waste ga'head.

Thursday Morning Check-In • ROUND I

2006-11-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

Reviews for 11-15-06

Another week, another stack. It's kind of a light one for me, but I still managed to pull a few gems. Here's what I thought. Agree or disagree.

Civil War #5
***/*****
I'll lead with this one, since all comic bloggers are obligated by the Comic Blogger Registration Act™ to blog about Civil War. Things have lost steam a bit since the delay, but I'm still enjoying this mini-series event. This issue shed a bit more light on the 'pro-regs' and also proved to us all that Steve McNiven can draw one hell of a Punisher. Seems like all the cool kids are hating on Civil War these days, but honestly I don't know what some of these people were expecting. My inner 12 year old is loving this shit.

Batman #658
**/*****
This arc started with a bang and ended with, well, you tell me, because I'm not all that clear on what just happened. Sort of a mess here at the end, but overall I'd say Morrison told a fun and quirky Batman story (which have been kind of hard to come by for the past, oh, 25 years or so), and I look forward to whatever else he has planned.

Escapists #5
***/*****
Let me just get this out of the way: I think it's pretty damn silly that the President of some multimedia conglomerate is personally orchestrating the demise of three indie comic upstarts in order to obtain the rights to a superhero that no one's cared about for decades. Talk about micromanaging. Anyway, that one minor gripe aside, I think this title is doing Michael Chabon proud. There really should be more comics about people making comics, and this particular comic is quite a bargain when you consider that it's sort of 2 comics in 1, and both of them are pretty damn good comics. I'm going to say comic one more time. Comic.

¡¡¡PICK DE LA SEMANA!!!

Sock Monkey: The Inches Incident #2
****/*****
Now here's a little something different, not to mention completely terrifying. More Tony Millionaire goodness as we meet Inches, a talking doll who has recently been overtaken by "candy-mad" ants. At first I was a little skeptical how this book would play out as a serialized mini-series, but I enjoyed the crap out of this issue. Be warned though, that photo on the back cover is certified nightmare juice.

And that's it for me so far, Posse. Who got next?

On Absolutes and New Frontiers

2006-11-15T10:10:00.000-08:00

This week I made my maiden voyage into 2 new and exciting worlds. One was Darwyn Cooke's 'New Frontier'. The other was DC's bells-and-whistles Absolute format. One was really, really good. The other... not so much.

First of all...New Frontier. Wow. For those who aren't familiar, New Frontier is essentially a reexamination of Silver Age DC via the amazingly skillful hand of Darwyn Cooke. Jesus, that man can DRAW. His style has that golly-gee-whiz nostalgia factor to it necessary for a story of this ilk, but at the same time there's enough of an edge that it can cover the darker topics that would have been forbidden territory for a comic book during the 50's and 60's. Post-WW2 America is a tricky thing. In some ways, it really was one of the United States' brightest moments. But at the same time, it was an era of increasingly absurd paranoia, hypocrisy and oppression. Cooke doesn't romanticize the past or gloss over the the harsher truths of the day, but he never loses sight of its ideals, either. It's a bit of a tightrope act, and Cooke walks it quite deftly. New Frontier is sort of a cross between Watchmen and one of those cheesy 50's diners that I find both charming and disturbing at the same time.

I also admire how Cooke resolves the gap between DC's Golden and Silver Ages in a straightforward manner without the use of multiple Earths, Hypertimes, Negative Zones or any such high concept mucky muck (even though I love high concept mucky muck). At face value New Frontier is just a solid, straightforward superhero story that is confident and unflinching in its superhero-ness. And, amazingly enough, it manages to make Hal Jordan seem cool. I'm still trying to figure out how it pulled that one off.

Now, a word about Absolute Editions. I understand the appeal, really I do. Comics are art, and it stands to reason that in some cases they would warrant the oversize hardcover artbook treatment. The thing is, comics are stories, too. And as such, I didn't find Absolute New Frontier to be very user friendly. It's big, it's heavy, it's cumbersome as a motherfucker. Trying to read it in bed is like wrestling a cinderblock. A novel (and even a trade paperback, come to think of it) I can more or less hold in the palm of my hand. Imagine if the next Harry Potter book came out as a 13x20 inch hardcover tome. It would be kind of a pain in the ass, wouldn't it?

Which brings me to the only logical conclusion I can possibly draw here: Absolute Editions are not for reading. Maybe they're for looking at, or showing off, or just... dare I say it, collecting. But as reading material, I just don't find them all that functional. I think DC is keenly aware of this fact, and they bank largely on these things being sold to fans who have already bought and read them in easier to use formats. Perhaps the reason you don't hear people bemoan the Absolute reading experience is because they're not actually reading them. Or, maybe it's just my softcover bias speaking here. But I think that in the future I'll be sticking to comics of the floppier variety.

On the other hand, all those extra features are pretty damn cool.

Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain

2006-11-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

It happens to us all. I can remember the first time it happened to me. It was during an issue of Amazing Spider-Man. It doesn't matter what issue number. What matters is, when I got to the last page, I wanted more. Not necessarily more Spider-Man. I was fairly confident I could wait 30 days for that. I wanted...something else. And no, not girls, either. That was still a few years away. But at that moment, suddenly it wasn't enough just to read a Spider-Man comic... I wanted to know about the people who made it. So I studied the works of 90s giants such as Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, etc., forming a sort of mental rolodex of various names and styles. Of course, I couldn't tell you what any of these men looked like ('I wonder if Jim Lee is any relation to Stan?' pondered a young Buckshot) but I could spot their work from a mile away. I became the leading comics art authority of my 4th grade class. I wasn't just a fan of the characters anymore. I'd crossed a new threshold. I was now a fan of the creators.

I think we all experience moments like this at some point in our pop-culture consuming lives. That one song that inspires you to read the liner notes. That one movie that leaves you in your seat all the way through the credits. That one comic book that makes you stop and say,"Hey wait a minute...somebody made this thing." Call it passion, call it a thirst for knowledge, call it a loss of innocence, but eventually the story itself is not enough, and you want to know the story behind the story. So you take a peek behind the curtain.

The tricky thing is, if it's the comics curtain you're wanting to peek behind, there's not a whole lot of information out there for you. Oh sure, it's not as bad as it used to be. At this very moment, there are roughly a dozen magazines, 100 podcasts, and 60 billion comic blogs readily available for those seeking comic book enlightenment. Not too shabby. But finding the really good stuff... the gems... that's where it gets tricky.

I've recently discovered quite the gem. And I'd like to share it with you.

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones is an impressively thorough look into comics history that I would go so far as to regard a 'must-read' for serious comic book fans. Now, I should probably preface all this with saying that you could likely fill 2 Grand Canyons with stuff I don't know about comic book history, but I suspect that there's a lot of guys out there like me, who want to know more about their beloved medium but
just aren't sure where to look. Well, start here.

When I bought this book, I wasn't really sure what it was I wanted to know. Luckily, it covers just about everything. And I do mean everything. The primary focus is the Golden Age and Jerry Siegel (whose importance can't really be overstated), but the book also touches on EC, The Comics Code, Marvel, MAD and all that followed. Because art cannot exist in a vacuum, and because all good stories need a little bit of prep-time, Jones sets the the stage a bit before comic books as we know them are actually birthed. Scenes are set, characters are introduced, social and political climates are explored. Comics didn't just appear out of thin air, and they don't even appear in this book until around page 100. So along with comic books, expect to learn a good bit about turn of the century New York City politics, organized crime, and the salad days of media conglomerates (hint: They're all the same thing.)

Keeping in with the title's theme, the book interweaves seemingly disparate aspects of America into a sort of pop-culture gumbo that, among other things, led to the American superhero. Accountants, gangsters, hucksters, communists, intellectuals, liars, thieves, and nebbish man-children from Cleveland all collide and create two-fisted tales and four color fantasy. If you think Superman is something else, wait until you get a load of the guys who printed him.

To its credit, Men of Tomorrow never gets so deeply entrenched in the world of comic books that it neglects the outside world that conceived it, and I think that's what sets it apart from the herd; Context.

Of course, it is deeply entrenched in the world of comic books, and for a guy like me, that's where all the good stuff is to be found. I love me some anecdotes, and this book is full of 'em.

For example:

• Stan Lee once spent a night in the brig for breaking into a military
post office for a Captain America script!

• Jack Kirby offered to beat up a mob enforcer for Will Eisner!

• Joe Simon was so embarrassed about working in the comic book
industry, he told his neighbors he was a bookie!

• Bob Kane lied about his age to invalidate his old contracts with DC
(Bob lies about a lot of things in this book) - thus causing them to
write up new ones, and this time for a much bigger pay day for Kane.

See, stuff like that. I won't spoil them all, mainly because there's far too many for me to possibly remember... But also because this kind of stuff is more fun to discover on your own.

It seems fitting that this kind of stuff is so hard to come by. After all, the comics industry was built on the cornerstones of secret identities and hidden strengths. But the true strength, the real story, is what lies behind the mask.

Go on, take a peek.

Missteps of the Week

2006-11-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

Prep Time Posse

ETERNALS # 5 OF 7
I have been following this book from the very first title just because of how neat it looked. I am a fan of the polarizing John Romita Jr. and his blocky characters, and I think his style is really well suited to the design of this book. It's just this book isn't really doing it for me. Even though this month's effort was better than the last 3, I can't really say its moving anything forward because we're now 5 issues in on a 7 issue release and Makari, the main character of the first 2 releases, has been stuck in stasis for the last issue and a half. Once Sprite was revealed as a the bad guy heavy, he is now suddenly the foil for the real bad guys, the Deviants, who had been played as fools before this. Grotesque fools, but fools nonetheless.

I'm torn on whether or not to stop collecting this title because I'm $20 in now and it'll only cost me $8 to ultimately decide on how I feel about this run. Or...I could wait 6 months and then it'll cost me $0.50 to find out if I liked the last two issues.

DAMNED # 2
This book fell off farther, and harder, than anything I've seen in a while. I cannot express just how much appreciation I have for a mind that comes up with a demonic organized crime story. Some ideas just speak to you, and that is one that just hollerates at my ass in loud clear tones. However enamored I am with the idea cooked up therein, poor execution between the first two books will demand that I thoroughly noodle through any purchase of a third.

CROSS BRONX # 3 OF 4
I feel bad for how much I pumped up this book now. Not that I think the first two are any less than I originally said, but this recent release failed to incorporate any of what I liked so much in them. Which is odd because I am of the understanding that all the books are pretty much done right now. I don't understand why the first 2 books of a 4 part series to look so entirely different than the 3rd, and why the 3rd doesn't contain the overwhelming positives of those previous 2. To be completely honest, I was just lost with this issue. What happened with the spooky cliffhanger at the end of 2 with Det. Aponte and all the moths? What's with the Aponte's partner jackin scumbags for dope? Some of the best moments in the first 2 issues was the banter with these guys and now we get an issue where they don't even share a panel. Neither the storytelling devices nor the action sequences used in this issue did much to advance the story along. We've seen the avenging angel of justice kill people locked up and freaking out in squad cars. We've seen Det. Aponte struggle with his faith and his cultural identity as he's attacked on both fronts. The talk-radio arguments, while being a clever way of dealing with exposition and revealing that what's going on the neighborhood is being noticed by the residents, didn't offer up any viewpoints that weren't illustrated previously by the cops, crooks, victims, and family members. I highly anticipate this release after being knocked out by the first 2 books, and I was woefully underwhelmed.

Comic of the Week: Annihilation #4

2006-11-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

What are you holding behind your back?
Noooooothing.

I was already to give Grant Morrison's Batman my vote for comic of the week but then I read this bad boy.

This is how you create tension in a comic book.

The first three issues have been hit or miss for me. You definitely get a sense of all the destruction going on and, unlike Seven Soliders, you can see how the mini-series tied into the main series (Seriously, how did Morrison think he could tie 7 miniseries into one 40 page comic book?).

But Giffen gave me the one thing I wanted more than anything this series.

Thanos.

It's no secret that he is my favorite Marvel villain of all-time., especially post-Infinity Gauntlet. When he's written correctly, like he is here, he comes across as a cool character who has done it all and now is just bored. He knows (or at least believes) he's the smartest person in the galaxy and that his only Achilles heel is his love for Death. Everyone is beneath him.

This issue we find out what Thanos' motivation for following Annihilus down this path of destruction while simultaneously Drax makes his way through countless armies to achieve his one goal: Kill Thanos.

Remember when Drax The Destroyer was a complete buffoon?

That moment has passed.

He is a unstoppable killing machine. To watch him make his way through the Annihilus Wave is nothing short of amazing.

This was a well-written and well-drawn affair and now it will be interesting to see how the rest of the mini-series works out.

Besides, tell me that is not one of the best covers of 2006.

Prep Time Posse

2006-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

Prep Time Posse

I finally figured this batch out!

Alright, I've decided to write at least weekly about all things comic-bookish. I've got a couple of things ready and they kinda run the gamut: reviews (spoiler and non), editorials, one essay so far, and even an original story I'd like to turn into a book. I'm still unfamiliar enough with blogging to not be aware if I'm going to get feedback on any of this, but I assure the entirety of the Prep-Timers: If you check back in every week, there will be something new here for you. I have decided to title my weekly offering "KRAKA-THOOM!!" because no other word, not "SHAZAM" nor the repetition of "SNIKT SNIKT", embodies everything I appreciate so much about comics as the wonderful display of those large letters jostly displayed across a stormy sky. I must have seen that word used in books a couple of dozen times before I realized that I had found a book that actually used it correctly. Eric Powell, the creator of the brilliant THE GOON series, did a small, yet beautifully evocative, story I found in a MARVEL Strange Western Tales book a year or two ago. The opening panel was of a torrential downpour on a wide open prairie, completely dark and damp. The next panel featured the same shot yet there was a blisteringly bright whitish-yellow steak of lightning stretching through this gargantuan sky, no lettering at all. The next panel was the original panel again, the lightning bolt had since disappeared, but there was this huge block lettered KRACKA-THOOOOOM rumbling the sky. And it hit me like a thousand Wildcat gut punches...thunder follows lightning. It was such a small simple thing, as so many epiphanies are, but it was just the greatest example of just what comics can do that other media can't. I took what might be thought of as a limit of the sequential art medium and absolutely used it to an advantage in the pacing and manipulation of the panels. Fantastic.

So anyways...on with the show.

You need to be reading REVERE.

I'll stress the urgency because the book's publisher, ALIAS COMICS, has decided its going to solely do Christian books from here until the second coming and this book might not sit well with the more pious amongst their reading audience. However, those readers might very well enjoy the book immensely as all the main characters, both the good and the morally bankrupt alike, seem to be devoutly religious. At least on outward appearances. Indeed, this is a small example of what I find most redeeming about the book. I've long been a fan of books that are set in various locales and in various eras dealing with any number of circumstances, with the one unifying theme in all of those varied books being the adherence to authenticity the creators displayed. This book drips with that adherence. The verbiage and the wardrobe of its time period and locale, the Northeastern American Colonies just before the Revolutionary War, is alive and well represented in this title.

The book does a fine job of showing us that what we now know hold dear official US History was very much up in danger of turning out drastically different. We're given slices of various different lives to view. Rag-tag rebel guerrilla inhabitants were scattered and discouraged. They were facing an uphill battle against an overwhelming and polished enemy who was at the time, the one and only Superpower the world knew. But just as the people of the country these days possess differing opinions on the state of affairs, so it was then. Not all the characters depicted in the book are of the revolutionary ilk. There are the loyalists, those comfortable in their station and not eager to see their way of life be threatened or obliterated by the ouster of England from the colonies. They are protected by, and subservient to, the British soldiers arriving on the American shore in large numbers by orders of the Monarchy back home. Amidst all of this there is a delightful adherence to that authenticity I spoke of and its refreshing to enjoy a book that doesn't dumb itself down for mass consumption. This is a niche book and it knows it and it celebrates it.
People speak to each other in the vernacular and syntax of the time and I am not embarrassed to say I often found myself reading balloons a few times over to fully set myself into the pace of the story. This was not always due to ignorance on my part, however and it is another fine feature of the richness of this book. There are several instances in the book in which characters speak in a code or utter an accepted an understood phrase, which would be greeted by a specifically prepared response allowing both parties to know that they are in the company of friends and can speak freely their revolutionary mind. I wondered if any of these were actual codes or messages used by the Revolutionary generation as they gathered in hidden cellars and bootlegger basements and plotted treason over 200 years ago.

This book conveys all the pomp and pageantry of the British soldiers as well the stoic bravery and ragged stubbornness of the Revolutionary forefathers with the beautiful artwork of Grant Bond. His hyper-realized style looks as if it jumped right off the screen of a Disney film, but with a freer looser line. It serves the book expertly throughout, but best in the fast-paced chase scenes with characters scared out of their wits and running around willy-nilly. The close and impending doom is felt on the page. the battle scenes are jarring and contain just enough gruesome gore to be effective. The coloring is unabashedly computerized and while this style is not really my favorite, it is used extremely well here as the colors they employ are broad and not commonly used. The eerie mood is set with the purply and brownish tones they employ. The creepy night skies are darkened and rainy, illuminated by occasional lightning streaks and wickedly full moons ready to burst. All of it works wonderfully with the creepy horror vibe of the monsters and the carnage they leave in their wake. What's that? Oh yeah...didn't I mention it? Well then, I guess I should get to it. The main focus of the book is the threat to the colonist posed by the Monsters. Yeah, that's right...MONSTERS.

It seems strange things are afoot in colonial New England and I'm not referring only to soldiers of the British Commonwealth. Creatures of the night are on the hunt and the hero named in the book's title, PAUL REVERE for those of you who were reading X-FORCE during US History, is just the man to fight them. He's also apparently the only one aware o the danger and just how, well, dangerous it all really is. So not only do the Sons of Liberty have to worry about Redcoats, they have to worry about their own coats turning red as Were-wolves and Zombified Human Crows of prehistoric size make meals of their vitals. Now, I know I made a strong point of how much I enjoyed this book because of its adherence to realism in its tone and language, and I really do admire that part of the book the most. But dammit it is awesome to see a man from the pages of history, a figure who was nothing ever more than a name, ride high in the saddle wielding his paper-load revolver and solid steel sabre and take down devils and demons with righteous revolutionary zealousness.

I love what the creators have done here. They have set us so firmly in a long-lost time and place and tweaked it on its ear by giving a timeless threat to it. They've done it in a beautiful and intelligently creative way. I am saddened to see that we only have one issue remaining but then that just means that all of you can enjoy a completely original and extremely well told story for $15 measly bucks. I can't express enough to you how much I have dug these 3 issues, and all I can really say is: KRACKA-THOOOOM!!!

Spider-Man 3 trailer

2006-11-09T19:23:00.000-08:00

It's on!

LIGHTNING ROUND

2006-11-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

In which I toss out 5 random questions in an attempt to promote thought and discussion amongst my peers, and hopefully get this blog bouncing again.

1. How irredeemable is too irredeemable? 'Cause, you know, it's one thing to pretend your wallet is missing and have your date pay for dinner... it's another thing entirely to push your homeboy's skull into the line of fire and jack his super suit. Don't get me wrong – I like this series. I just didn't expect it to live up to its title with such gusto.

2. What are your thoughts on DC's Absolute Editions? I used to think oversized hardcover comics were too cumbersome to function as comic books, and not quite pretty enough to function as art books. But after receiving Absolute New Frontier in the mail yesterday, I may just change my tune. It's big, it's beautiful, and it smells magnificent. I'll get to reading it just as soon as I can stop staring at it, if that makes any sense.

3. What was the best thing Grant Morrison added to the X-Men mythos? For me, it would have to be the way he turned mutantdom into a living, breathing culture, and not just some half-baked Civil Rights metaphor. Giving mutants their own neighborhoods, their own rockstars, and even their own drugs, was in my opinion, one of the coolest things to ever happen for mutants.

...Beak was pretty cool, too.

4. Was anyone else turned off by the ridiculous number of ads in Superman Confidential #1? I couldn't get past the 3-D glasses, man. Guess I'll be waiting for the trade.

5. Why are people still reading Wizard Magazine? And furthermore, why are people getting worked up over Wizard Magazine? I mean... For real though?

City of Heroes

2006-10-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first four episodes of Heroes

The writing is kinda bad (which anyone who has read a Jeph Loeb comic since Batman "Hush" knows that's not a surprise).

Some of the actors are annoying (Milo Ventimiglia and Ali Larter).

The theme of the season is kinda lame ("Save the Cheerleader. Save The World." Seriously? That must have been some writers' brainstorm).

The characters act questionably (Hiro jumps into the past to an exact time and place Peter is on the subway, but doesn't know the cheerleader's name or address? Mohinder gets called crazy by Nathan and all of the sudden, he's ready to pack his bags and quit?).

So why do I (Well, "we" considering the ratings) love NBC's Heroes so much?

I remember when I downloaded and watched the pilot episode with a friend and we both agreed that it was okay but I could easily see myself being disinterested after a while.

Then I saw the second episode and I was all-but-ready to tune out and watch Monday Night Football and then we realize that Hiro teleported weeks into to the future and the day of the explosion that Issac foretold in his painting from the first episode.

Holy shit.

Then the third episode was equally suspect but then the train froze and there was Hiro with a ponytail, a sword and speaking perfect English to Peter "My hair won't stay out of my eyes" Petrelli.

Holy SHIT!

Clearly, the writers went to the Whedon School of Cliffhangers.

And now here I am hooked on yet another TV show.

The fourth episode didn't live up to the cliffhanger of the previous episode but seeing Nathan take off like a rocket and make a sonic boom in the sky made up for it.

Even though executive producer and creator Tim Kring says he has no background in comics, he has made the ultimate fanboy show.

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (People who are comparing this favorably to the first season of Lost need to slow their roll and compare to the first season of The 4400*) but I'll be damned that every time someone uses their power, I don't smile like a little kid.

*Hopefully this won't turn into The 4400 where we're three seasons in and still don't know what the purpose of bringing them back.

Civil War: The Bigger Picture

2006-09-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

If you have not read Civil War #4 yet, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. I have been waiting just as patiently as everyone else for this, especially after the way #3 ended. How cool was it to see Iron Man beating the hell out of Captain America? And the scene in the restaurant with the secret identities was cool too. When I first read #4 however, I was unhappy with what I was seeing.

I mean, that's not really Thor? The big death was Goliath? I felt let down by Marvel after waiting for a month.

But when I re-read it, I realized a few things. First off, this was no where near what I had been expecting after the end of last issue and with subsequent issues of FF and Spider-Man that took place after CW#3. Sure, it set up things like Spidey swapping sides and the FF splitting, and even had me thinking that Falcon was the one who bit the dust. But everything gets better with age. I like that it is not Thor. It gives Tony's faction something of a villainous side. Since when do heroes clone other heroes to fight other heroes? The last page also adds to this (btw, I know I saw Songbird, Taskmaster, Bullseye, Lady Deathstrike, Jack O'Lantern, and the new Venom, but who was the other dude in the back?). It would of course make sense if Marvel had the Pro-Reg heroes being controlled by a powerful villain, but that is the easy way out (and something that I may not forget for a while, so Marvel, if you are reading this, you better not dissapoint). This issue really showed us as the audience as well as the characters in the book what was at stake: This really is WAR, and Marvel is making a stand. The new Thor saw it that way, as did Cap, who was a bloody, pissed off mess the whole book. It costed Goliath his life because of his point of view. I think this issue really hit home when Sue Storm and Torch split the FF though. It was something that could have been predicted, just as the unmasking of Spidey was, at least for me. And the single coolest part of this issue? When Falcon picked up Cap and started flying away, he says 'Fall back and regroup! We've got to get out of here or we're all going down!' And what does the faux Thor say? 'You ARE all going down'. I had to crack a smile with that one.

Marvel seems to know what they are doing with this, as the post CW world is shaping up to be something completely different, but also something completely new and exciting. So far, they have revealed Spider-Man's identity (which we know will somehow be revoked, probably because they are setting him up as the 'traitor' to Iron Man, but damn it was a jawdropper anyway), killed an entire team in the first issue, and seemingly tore apart the Fantastic Four as we know it (another moment that will eventually be revoked, but I have been waiting for something different in FF for a long time, I just hope they can do something astounding like they did with the Avengers). I am really into this event. Usually, most endings and big shockers are easy to guess in this day and age because it seems that everything has been done before, but Marvel has managed to snag me, and I am on board. You all may say DC rules the world, but I am still screaming 'Make Mine Marvel'!

Go, Stagger Lee!

2006-08-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

Or, Q&A with the creators of the new graphic novel

A few months ago I walked into Showcase Comics and saw a cover: an old fashioned pistol, a Stetson hat, and the clincher - the words “STAGGER LEE” - above. I had to have it.

I wasn’t let down, of course, and it turns out that Stagger Lee, by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix, will end up being one of the most critically acclaimed comics projects of the year. Product of careful research and even more careful invention, unlike most versions of the famous song Stagger Lee doesn’t stop with Billy’s shooting or Stag's hanging; it goes on to discuss the ins and outs of Stag’s trial, St. Louis politics and race relations in the 1890s, the probable process of the song's creation, recorded versions, American archetypes, and how song acts as a societal mirror.

The book was published this spring to excellent reviews, and somehow between promoting the book, attending the big Con, and in Shepherd’s case recovering from a collapsed lung, the two authors found the time to correspond with this fan and answer a mess of questions for the Posse.

Your bios indicate that for both of you, Stagger Lee is a return to comics after perhaps a decade long hiatus. What was it about this story that made you want to tell it in this medium, and badly enough to draw you back to comics?

Derek: I think my last published work in comics before Stagger Lee was in something like 1991 or 1992, so in my case it’s been an almost 15‑year break. I did try to put other projects together in that period, but was always pretty lackadaisical about it. It’s not too surprising I didn’t get anywhere.

Stagger Lee was one of those intermittently-pursued projects (as was Displaced Persons, the one I’m writing now, for publication by Image in late 2007), but I think several things set it apart to make me just a little bit more persistent in getting it done. One is that it’s really different from most everything else you see in comics in a really fundamental way – in the structure, the subject matter, the general approach – and it’s kind of exciting to feel like you’re doing something unique. Another is that in Shepherd I had a very enthusiastic collaborator who was as drawn to the story as I was and was as committed to seeing it told – that’s a value-add that can’t be overstated. A third reason has to do with how we hooked up with Image in the first place, and I’ll talk about that in question #9.

Shepherd: Well, in my case, that’s not entirely true. I did indeed leave comics back in the mid 90s but I actually had done another comics project before Stagger Lee.

Back in 2004, I’d published a graphic novel with Image called Shangri La, written by Marc Bryant. I don’t really talk much about the book—not because I feel that it was a bad book but due to the distraction of juggling other work commitments—coupled with the fact that my comics work was really rusty--I didn’t put my full effort into it. I thought I could have done much better. If Shangri La were to be reprinted I’d definitely redo certain parts of the book.

In regard to why Stagger Lee, Derek and I had tried for years to get a few other projects off the ground but for some reason or another things fell apart. Derek and I had known each other for twenty years. I’d worked on a few short stories that he had published back in the 80s but nothing really substantial. Until Stagger Lee, that is.

Obviously, a lot of readers will be most familiar with the classic Lloyd Price version of the song. Do either of you recall the first time you heard this song, or the first version you heard? What were your reactions?

Derek: I had what’s maybe the lamest possible introduction to Stagger Lee. I first heard it when I was a kid on an American Graffiti soundtrack. Not even the American Graffiti soundtrack, mind you, but an American Graffiti soundtrack. After the monster success of that first double album, they pumped out a couple more albums filled up with oldies that weren’t even in the movie. One of those oldies was the Lloyd Price version of Stagger Lee. I can’t say I really knew the song well then, but the title always stuck in my mind. Probably the next version I knew after that was Nick Cave’s, and I was kind of baffled how they could be the same song. When I finally came across the basics of the story in a book by Greil Marcus, I was hooked, and that set me off on the path to writing my own book.

Shepherd: I heard Lloyd Price’s Stagger Lee as a track on a cd I’d received from I don’t know whom. With the way Lloyd was cheering Stagger on, I thought the song to be peppy yet weirdly sadistic.

You list about 35 versions of the song in the Appendix. What are your favorite versions? Are there any you DON’T like? What influenced which renditions made appearances in the book?

Derek: My inclinations tend to the old-timey, so my favourites are all early blues versions, particularly Mississippi John Hurt’s and Furry Lewis’. I also really like the very comprehensive (but hard-to-find) proto-rock ‘n’ roll version by Archibald, which was faithfully covered and maybe even improved upon (certainly improved upon in terms of recording quality) by Dr. John. I also really like Ma Rainey’s version, even though it doesn’t really have much to do with Stagger Lee. Professor Longhair’s version is really great too. Oh, and it took a while to grow on me but I ended up liking Bob Dylan’s gargly voice on his cover of the Frank Hutchison version.

Of course, there are versions I don’t like, but I’d prefer not to rag on them since I’m sure they all have their supporters. After collecting more than two hours’ worth, though, I can say that there are way too many covers of Lloyd Price’s version. It’s testament to how solidly Price constructed his version that so many people have covered it, but it gets a little repetitive on the CD mix after a while. Of all the Price covers, I think I have the softest spot for Johnny Otis’ version.

What influenced which versions went into the book and how they made their appearance was mostly copyright law. Every version is significant in its own way, and I’d have loved to quote more extensively from later ones, but I figured I was on safest ground using only those whose authorship is credited to “traditional” and/or which are old enough to be in public domain. Hence, a fully quoted treatment of ‘Bama’s extemporaneous work-farm ballad, but only a single panel glancing at the Clash’s take on The Rulers’ “Wrong ‘em Boyo.”

Shepherd: I’m not sure I really have a favorite. They all mean something different. The Lloyd Price version, to me is the most familiar. The Nick Cave version is a definite stylistic standout in comparison to the others. The Ma Rainey version is sad and almost plaintive.

Derek, you’re a white guy writing about race relations, black history, folklore, black on black crime, etc. Do you think this (consciously) affected how you chose to tell the story? Did it ever lead to any awkwardness?

Derek: I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an intimidating project from that perspective, but if I wanted to do it right – and I did – I knew I had to have no fear. To achieve that level of confidence, I had to be certain I knew the material thoroughly—backwards and forwards—and I had to be wholeheartedly committed to the value of truthfulness. I didn’t sit down to start writing until I honestly thought I could meet both those criteria. It’s been a few years now since I finished the script, and every now and then I find myself looking at this or that piece of dialogue and wondering where I ever got the balls to put it down on paper, but I’m glad I did. No punches are pulled, and it makes the world the characters inhabit a real and believable place.

The history in the story is obviously carefully researched, courtesy the academic world. Image-wise, all of the historic musicians pictured are immediately recognizable to fans; other than the explained exception of lawyer Nathan Dryden, was Shepherd able to research likenesses for the novel’s historic characters’ physical appearances? Likewise, were historic images of the St. Louis neighborhood at the center of the story used in constructing the scenery?

Derek: I think the only historical characters we ever had actual likenesses of were Nathan Dryden (after that likeness was irrelevant); the judge in the first trial, though I can’t remember whether or not Shepherd made use of that likeness; and I think I might have come across one picture of Ed Butler, though again I’m not sure if Shep used that when designing the character. A couple of cameo appearances did make use of real likenesses – Tom Turpin, who’s seen playing piano at his Rosebud Bar a few years before the place was built; and Frank James (of Frank and Jesse), who make an uncredited cameo at Butler’s vaudeville house, the Standard Theatre, where he really was employed for a time as a doorman.

Shepherd: The character likenesses were rather general. As a work of fiction based on fact, I felt the likenesses of the characters didn’t have to be exactly spot on. In Nathan Dryden’s case, Derek requested that he resemble Roscoe Lee Brown.

Derek’s research extended beyond mere facts and figures; he did extensive online searches for relevant characters and places. In fact, his script was laced with all the hyperlinks I needed to get such visual references. Derek also sent me a couple of books, one of which featured prominent St. Louis locales as they appeared long ago and as they appear now. Much of the remaining research I did was for everyday things common to that time period; household items, clothing, furniture, etc.

Speaking as an artist: when drawing a graphic novel based on factual evidence-- Derek is the guy to work with.

I noticed that you have commentary from Greil Marcus on the back cover, and the comments on Amazon as well as my own experience show how well this book speaks to certain music fans. How has the music community responded to the book? Have any of the artists who’ve recorded the song reacted?

Derek: As you might guess, the quote from Greil Marcus was a particularly big thrill for me, since it was his book, Mystery Train, that first introduced me to the myth and history of Stagolee. He was incredibly supportive of the book, and went out of his way to fix it so that we could quote his piece from Interview on our jacket. We’ve also had very good response from the blues fans who’ve read it – one guy posted plugs on what looked like every blues bulletin board in the world. We were also recently talked up on Bill Wax’s blues show on XM radio. It’s a challenge getting the book in front of music fans, though – it’s not a traditional distribution channel for comics, and we’re kind of figuring it out as we go along.

As for artists who’ve recorded Stagger Lee, we haven’t heard much. I sent a copy to Johnny Otis, but haven’t heard back from him. Several different friends have told me they showed the book to musicians who have Stagger Lee in their repertoire and got very enthusiastic responses, but this is all filtering back to me second- or third-hand.

Your book explains how the race of Stagger Lee (along with the plot) has come into and out of focus as the song has shifted among audiences, locales, and traditions, and cites Stagger Lee as “the spiritual father of the ‘gangsta,’” one of the dominant images in hip hop today. Are you familiar with the contemporary (well, maybe has-been or also-ran) rapper Stagga Lee?

Derek: I’m pretty pig-ignorant about rap, though I do think the historical arc from Stagger Lee to gangsta is pretty clear. Cecil Brown certainly thinks so. I have heard of Stagga Lee, though I haven’t heard any of his music. Somebody told me that 50 Cent did a version, but I haven’t heard it myself.

Did you ever consider serializing Stagger Lee, or was it conceived as a novel from the start? It makes a fantastic novel, but I can’t help imagining how it would have broken down monthly...

Derek: I always thought of Stagger Lee as a novel. The narrative structure I decided on seems to me inherently novelistic. I think if I were to have done it as a monthly serial it would have been very different in both concept and execution.

Shepherd: As a reader, I couldn’t imagine Stagger Lee as a serialized piece of work. It’s like watching a movie: you have to fold yourself up within the story and follow it through to the end.

That said, it seems an odd type of story to be published by one of the largest comics companies. How hard was it to sell the story, and how has Image been?

Derek: Compared to all those years of abortive attempts to get comics projects off the ground, selling to Image couldn’t have been easier. Stagger Lee was very lucky to find an early champion in Charles Brownstein, who now runs the CBLDF. I used to talk to Charles about the book when he lived in the Bay Area in the early oughts, and he would always cajole me about working harder to sell it somewhere. I was more interested in self-publishing and was still sticking obstinately to that path when it occurred to Charles that Eric Stephenson, Image’s Executive Director and a huge music fan, would have a natural affinity for the project. Charles introduced us to Eric, and here we are today. Image has been great. They’ve seemed from the start to really believe in the artistic and commercial potential of the project, and have been behind it a hundred percent.

Shepherd: I was pretty surprised when I first heard that Image was interested in publishing Stagger Lee. But I praise them for doing so and for supporting us with getting our book out to the public. I think comics can be a larger and grander medium of communication and education than a lot of people give it credit for.

During the course of the novel, you also touch on two other well-known St. Louis murder ballads from the same era and neighborhood (Frankie & Johnny, and Duncan & Brady). With the abundance of source material, do either of you hope to undertake another project similar to this in the future?

Derek: It’s hard to imagine that I could ever again come up with anything as singular as Stagger Lee, but yeah, the thought of a sequel has once or twice crossed my mind. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but all of the projects I have in mind for the near future could be said to fall under the broad heading of “historical fiction” — some more fictional than others. I don’t have any plans for anything with quite the same confluence of historical/mythological/musicological elements, but you never know. I’m told there’s a compelling story behind that Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini song.

Shepherd: I would like to. I’d also like to know that there are those out there who would appreciate and support such material. Please let us hear from you! I don’t want to be preaching to an audience of crickets!
---
If by any chance you’re not familiar with the song at the center of the book, click the following link to download a primer with some of the versions referenced in the book, recorded over the past 80 years and arranged here in (I think) chronological order.

http://rapidshare.de/files/29083204/Stagger_Lee_uploads.zip.html

1. Frank Hutchinson (1927)
2. Mississippi John Hurt (1928)
3. Bama (1947)
4. Lloyd Price (1959)
5. Ike & Tina Turner (ca.1965)
6. Taj Mahal (1969)
7. The Grateful Dead (1978)
8. The Clash (197 9)
9. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (1999)

---

Plug: For more news and info, be sure to check into Derek’s blog at http://staggerlee.typepad.com/, and thank the creators for their time and thoughts by moseying over to Amazon.com and copping their book for a ridiculously low price.

2006-07-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

Loyal readers: We interrupt your regular programming to alert you to the truth and hip you to the realness!

Bloggers and blogettes, rappers and chickenheads:
JOIN THE POSSE TODAY AND PROSPER!

Okay, so you're feeling the blog and you crave for more of that PTP goodness right, Junior?! Don't fret, join our team on Okayplayer.com! It's real easy and FREE! That's right, Jimmy, it's FREE! Rejoice! All you have to do is go to Okayplayer.com, register after clicking on BOARDS, and you're in. Once there, mosy on over to the "Pass The Popcorn" board and join in on our huge, in-depth, chair-throwing, politically-charged, reality-checking and hilarious discussions. Buck all that distraught fanboy bullshit you get when you hit up other comic-sites; we are the only comicbook crew that is tolerant of each other and real. Don't believe, me? Fine go check for yourself, Jack! See you soon...

Nothing Else To Say But This

2006-07-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Upload videos at Bolt.

Clark, Bruce, Diana, and Rory: Thoughts on JLA #0

2006-07-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

As much as I enjoy making fun of Identity Crisis and its big noses, I’m a relative apologist for Brad Meltzer and Rag Morales’ earnest portrayal of DC’s heroes as a Ya-Ya Sisterhood. In Identity Crisis – even though the point of the story was to drive home the importance of secret identities – all our usually stuffy heroes run around calling each other by their real first names. Clark, Bruce, Ollie, Diana. Everyone is everyone else’s BFF. Sure, this happens in other titles as well, but the amount of namedropping that Meltzer peppered his script with was enough to make even Jayceon Terell Taylor shake his head in embarrassment.

It was a little grating sometimes, but it worked perfectly for the story. Driving home the fact that these caped and cowled titans were actual people - with names, feelings, families, insecurities and life-histories with each other - made the tragedy of death within their ranks all the more tragic. Meltzer’s interior writing style was so successful it was later used by other writers in the fantastic Countdown to Infinite Crisis #0, which as a result was chock full of insightful intimate reflections such as when we learned that everyone is in love with Diana, and also when we learned that everyone thinks Koriand'r is really fucking hot. Man, these heroes felt so damn real. *I* think Kory is really fucking hot too!

Meltzer is back now, penning the new Justice League re-launch. Post-Crisis, Meltzer’s League feels a lot like Gilmore Girls. Yeah. Justice League. It’s Gilmore Girls with less dialogue, really. It has that small-town everybody-knows-everybody sensibility, and people talk over each other and complete each other’s thoughts and sentences. Clark and Diana are Gilmore and Gilmore Girl, and Bruce is that cranky dude who runs the diner. Why Alan Heinberg isn’t on this title, I have no idea.

As I said, I dug this approach in Identity Crisis. In the new JLA book, however, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand it for very long. Now, I’m not really up to date on the inner-workings of the JLA…but a yearly meeting between Clark, Bruce and Diana? Does this exist? Because don’t they see each other all the fucking time? I guess it’s just pencilled in as guaranteed bonding time, where they can playfully swing sticks at each other and swap novels. For real, I’m all for portraying the softer side of the Big 3 and their relationships, and I guess it’s only normal for them to have inside jokes and stuff like that…but in scenes like the one where they make fun of Guy Gardner, I just don’t feel it. It feels forced, and it reaches the point where the camaraderie between the heroes doesn’t just feel awkward, it feels downright phony. Which I’m guessing is the opposite of what Meltzer is trying to accomplish here.

And don’t get me started on this, after Clark realizes Bruce and Diana stood him up:

I’m willing to write this book off as a weightless issue #0, not a part of the series and therefore not indicative of where the book is headed quality wise. But in the preview pages of issue #1(***), the cheese continues. I couldn’t tell if the Big 3 were choosing a new JLA or America’s Next Top Model.

Not to mention all the (hopefully) unintentionally funny close-ups of Diana’s breasts. Oh, and issue #0 had the funniest out-of-context comic quote I’ve come across in awhile: “he’ll be great. really great. like dick.”

I think the problem is that while even though Infinite Crisis made way for less brooding, less angry, depressed, dysfunctional heroes, we’re nonetheless left with an approach that still takes itself extremely seriously. And frankly, the earnest bastardry reads a lot better than the earnest we-are-one-big-happy-family stuff. At least when it’s written by Brad Meltzer, it does. Maybe Meltzer - who was so good at raping, murdering, and emotionally torturing DC’s characters - shouldn’t be the same guy to remake them into shiny happy people?

(***)
Preview Page 1
Preview Page 2
Preview Page 3

peace.

Slanted Perspectives

2006-07-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hello, True Believers. Come join me in a tour of recent Asian representations in the Big Two, yes?

DC

Week 6 of the highly enjoyable 52 series brought on "China Syndrome", an introduction to Grant Morrison's new team of Chinese superheroes, The Great Ten. My initial reaction wasn't very enthusiastic, though hopefully that will be assuaged as the team is fleshed out more (I believe they're playing a sizable role over in Greg Rucka's Checkmate?)

For now though, I'm giving the screwface to a dude whose superpower is...well, being a Tibetan buddhist...a Tibetan buddhist who incongruously works for "the preservation of China", and also to a woman whose power is to...well, give birth to a lot of babies and send them off to fight for the country (and I'm assuming die for it as well, since she still has an active function on the team). "Mother of Champions" is a kickass name though, I'll give them that.

Morrison's shown a strong interest in Eastern philosophy and mysticism and all that jazz, and I'm a big fan of Vimanarama, but I'm reticent to let him off the hook on hokey racial/cultural representations just because, well, he's Grant Morrison. The Great Ten might end up falling on the wrong side of hokey for me, but as I said, I'll give DC some time to hopefully flesh out the characters and develop them further from the cheesy communist-border-patrol-against-American-heroes they've been portrayed as so far.

Also from the brain of Grant Morrison comes the All New Atom, a book I've been anticipating for a long time. There's been quite a few Asian female characters in the mainstream comicverse, but, as in other forms of media, the Asian male is usually relegated to stereotypical side roles at best. The All New Atom, along with Firestorm and Batwoman, is one of DC's attempts to diversify their universe by taking less-popular characters and turning them into minorities.

Judging a book by its cover could prove disastrous in this case, as I'd say the cover for The All New Atom #1 is a failure on several fronts. Firstly, the Atom doesn't look Chinese to me, but that's highly subjective and nitpicky on my part, so I'll let that slide. Secondly, on the cover the new Atom looks damn near forty-years old, with a receding hairline, body rippling with muscles. No such character appears anywhere in the book. It's as if the cover artist had no more info other than "draw an Asian dude. Shrinking. Yeah. No. More Asian-ish. Yeah."

The tagline reads "Size Isn't Matter!" I'm not well-versed in all-things-Atom, so if this phrase existed before this issue as some sort of catch phrase please let me know. As it stands, the phrase sticks out to me for two offensive reasons: 1) The play on the phrase "size doesn't matter", usually used in reference to men with small dicks, a nod towards a stereotype that has played a big role in the effeminization of the Asian male in pop culture; and 2) The play on words - "size" and "matter" being terms of physics - is unsuccessful, which leaves me wondering what the punchline is supposed to be about. I'm left feeling that it's not a pun or a joke, but merely a purposeful mangling of language in the vein of bad Asian "engrish". I don't see how else that phrase could be thought of as clever.

So what you end up with is an Asian dude using poor English to defend his small size. That sucks. Plus, Atom is only flexing his right arm. It just looks weird, like he's trying to take a shit but his left arm fell asleep so he can't flex it (I hate when that happens!) and he can't undo his belt because it's too high up on his chest.

The interior of the book is much better fare. John Byrne's rendition of Ryan Choi is much younger and less earnest. While I'm not a huge fan of John Byrne's recent work, it's not bad per se. As for the story, I won't get too much into plot recaps, but Simone does well; it's quirky and fast and establishes character quickly. Random quotes pop out of nowhere in relation to what Ryan is thinking, showcasing his geekiness and wealth of knowledge. I dig it.

It's the first issue so there's the requisite "first-shrink" scene. We've seen it a million times before but it's not bad. The important thing is that it's out of the way, plus it's only the first issue and Ryan has already told everyone he found Palmer's belt. It's onwards and upwards from here. I'm not quite digging the Foggy Nelson-fat-jokey-sidekick thing, but I can live with it, especially knowing that Simone is good with the quips.

There's an obvious effort to address the Asian-guys-aren't-sexual thing, with a bunch of female students following Ryan around and making ga-ga eyes at him. The problem is that so far Ryan seems pretty oblivious to the opposite sex. Even if the girls think he is hot shit, if Ryan shows no particular interest then we still have a desexualization problem. It's only the first issue though. I'll give him a couple issues of prep time, but eventually he better start getting some and not in any tee-hee passive way either.

In other Gail Simone Asian goodness, Birds of Prey #95 saw Black Canary ending her little sabbatical in SE Asia. I love this book to death, but I'm glad that story is (more or less) done with. With Batman Begins, I got my final fill of white people going to Asia to train in mysterious fighting arts, only to then reject their inscrutable Asian masters and their unscrupulous Asian ways (kicking a bunch of Asian asses in the process). By the book's end, Black Canary pulls an Angelina Jolie on an Asian kid. Could be interesting, but child characters have the potential to get real cloying real fast. Simone does a great job of writing believable adult females, let's see how she does with little girls.

Marvel

In one of the more bizarre Asian spottings in comics, Civil War Frontline #1 had a short sidestory of Spiderman reflecting on the Japanese internment camps. I have to say, I stood this story a lot more before Spiderman unmasked.

Pre-unmasking, Peter's reflection at the end, "...with great power, huh?", seemed to me a condemnation of the US government's abuse of their power. In the same panel, a Japanese father tells his daughter that they must acquiesce to the interment camps in order to help the American war effort, "because it is our duty, because we are Americans." An image of the Statue of Liberty separates the image of the family from Spiderman, and Peter's reflection seemed at the time a sad response to the Japanese man's assertion, a reflection on when power and responsibility can go wrong.

Post-unmasking though, we know that Peter is on the side of the government, so the reflection reads differently. Instead, I see him as empathsizing with the Japanese family, doing something against his personal wishes because it is what's best for the country. It's his responsibility to give up personal freedom for his government.

That's a load of bullshit to me. Politics aside (Iron Man's team still has valid arguments on their side), to use the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII as a parallel to Spiderman and Iron Man taking off their masks is ridiculous and trivializes what the internment camps meant.

Paul Jenkin's preamble reads:

"In the interests of fairness, it can be noted that while they provided very sparse accommodation, these relocation centres had the highest live-birth rate and the lowest deathrate in wartime United States. The Japanese in the centres received free food, lodging, medical and dental care, clothing allowance, education, hospital care, and all basic necessities. The government even paid travel expenses and assisted in cases of emergency relief".

*Italics mine

OK. If that ain't a steaming pile of white-washing bullshit I don't know what is. In the interest of fairness? Even paid for travel expenses? As if you pay the bus fare when you get shipped off to jail. And oh wow, free food. Lowest death rate? Shit, I'm starting to wish I was Japanese in 1943. Those motherfuckers had it easy.

Anyways. The preamble is followed by nice poetry captions that illustrate some of the negative aspects of the Japanese "relocations". But the whole thing is bookended by that horribly apologetic introduction and by Spiderman saluting the patriotic responsibility of the Japanese Americans. The story is unnecessary and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

In more pleasant news, let's talk about my favourite Runaway, Nico. Runaway fans have been waiting and speculating over issue 18, when it is promised that yet another Runaway will be murked. Well, at the end of issue 17 Nico gets shot through the chest. I still don't think it's her that dies though, seeing as it's not yet issue 18, and I really don't think they'd off another minority character after the death of Alex.

I'm guessing someone sacrifices themselves to save her or some other magical business. Or who knows. She just might bleed slowly to death for the duration of the next issue.

I hope not though. Nico's grown to be not only my favourite Runaway, but one of my favourite recent characters overall. I love the way she's drawn and the complexity of her character. Lately she's been going around making out with a bunch of different people, male and female, and to writer Vaughn's credit, Nico doesn't come off as a floozy but as a girl who's going through shit. But the best part (and this goes for all the Runaways), is that even for a girl who's going through shit she doesn't read as a self-absorbed depressed emo kid. Which is more than I can say for half of the X-Men these days.

Nico's power is also one of my favourites. In order to summon her magical Staff of One, she has to cut herself and draw blood. I love the idea of a teen goth hero who has to cut herself in order to access her power. I got a little choked up during the story arc where Nico couldn't do it and yelled "I don't want to cut myself anymore!" Also, the staff shows up at inconvenient times, like during her time of the month, or when she brushes her teeth too hard. That's dope.

Let's hope that Nico makes it though the next issue, and that we see more characters like her in the near future.

peace.

Dear DC

2006-07-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

I stood by you during the fantastic build-up and inevitable letdown that was Infinite Crisis. I have high hopes for 52; it's been spectacular so far... One Year Later has been hit-or-miss. It's about time you face the facts though!

Step away from your collective crack pipe and fix your faces; you're fucking up!! How? You are literally letting shit slide by with ease while leaving quality titles to rot into non-existence. First, you desecrate my favorite character with a bullshit, yet hyped-up relaunch (see: The Flash). Then you went completely bat-shit insane and brought back The Monitors in the stinking fish grease stain that was Brave New World...

Now, I can go and on about all your recent missteps but I won't. You know what they are and I'm not going to waste my time clowning you, fools!

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CANCELLING SOLO? MARKET IT BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is hands down the rawest, most innovative and consistent book in your stable. Each issue has rained genius and astoundingly brilliant individual creativity down upon the masses i.e. the minority of fans that see the light.

As far as single issues go, nothing in the past four years, is touching Darwyn Cooke's issue. And don't even get me started on Sergio's soon-to-be considered classic piece of work, Damion's perfect marriage of two highly sylistic artforms and Allred's pop culture masterpiece.. This book contains the rawness and innovation that can, and should be found in world-renowned museum exhibits.

Now, I know people aren't picking up enough copies to warrant it going on BUT if you had gotten behind it as much as you did on your bullshit (shock and awe) titles you'd have a TOP 10 book each month. You could be bathing in dollar signs like there was no tomorrow. But no, you fucked up.

So on behalf of those readers that are smart enough to recognize and embrace quality in our beloved medium that is comicbooks: I shout, "FUCK YOU!"

And shit, you're only giving Manhunter a five issue stay of execution? You muffuckas are high! I'm mad and I know I'm not alone, bastards.

Who's with me?

Superman Returns...To Star In A Chick Flick

2006-06-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

I wish I knew how ta quit you

What if Jesus was a superhero? What if the devil was...um, bald? What if you combined Superman with The Notebook?

Ok, there was a lot of things to love. The special effects were great. The reverence for Richard Donner's Superman and Superman II was appreciated. But there was just something...missing.

After I got over the feeling of a watching a new Superman movie in 2006 that didn't involve Richard Pryor (R.I.P.) or Nuclear Man, I felt very detached from the movie.

I enjoyed all the scenes of Superman being...well Superman. Saving people, cheering crowds. The plane crash scene was amazing and I can't wait to see that in IMAX 3D but then it lost it's way and became a chick flick.

Brandon Routh was great...as Clark Kent. His Superman was okay. He wasn't bad but he lacked the earnest humor than Christopher Reeve brought to the role. Don't feel bad, Brandon. Reeve is an impossible act to follow - we're talking the best comic character brought to life ever. When there are enough comic book movies around that there are comic book movie awards and there is a lifetime achievement award, it will be called The Christopher Reeve Award of Excellence (or something like that). You know who would have made a great Superman...
So there's the scene where Clark is back at the Daily Planet and Lois introduces him to her boyfriend, Richard, who was played by James Marsden (For the guys, Cyclops from the X-Men films; for the women, the guy Rachel McAdams wrongfully cheats on in The Notebook). As the camera turns to him, I was like "Wow, he should have been Superman." The right build, he's tall, he looks like Christopher Reeve so it wouldn't have been a weird transition, and he's pretty good at playing morally uptight square guys. Major blunder to cast a guy who would be better suited to play Superman, Mr. Singer.
This is probably the best acting job I've ever seen Kate Bosworth do...but she still wasn't right as Lois Lane. I mean, she got the reporter thing down but she lacked Lois' spunk. If this is a direct sequel to the Richard Donner films, Lois was a "I don't take shit from anyone" woman and Margot Kidder played it perfectly. This is the same woman who hit the gun when her and Clark were being mugged, snuck into the Eiffel Tower to spy on terrorists by hanging on the bottom of a elevator and jumped into a river because she was so convinced that Clark was Superman. I didn't feel like Kate Bosworth's Lois would have done any of that.
Welcome back, Kevin Spacey. How I've missed you. These are the kind of roles that we fell in love with Kevin Spacey for. Not that The Shipping News/Pay It Forward crap. I want Spacey the mean funny sardonic asshole that blew my mind in Swimming With Sharks. I hope this is a good sign for the future and not a blip in the current spiraling of your career.
Frank Langella sucked as Perry White. He had some great lines but lacked the energy and fire an editor of the number one paper in Metropolis should have.
Why cast Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle) and give him one line and just have him be a nameless henchman? What a waste. Maybe he's friends with Bryan Singer.
The movie was way too long. I'm almost getting tired of saying this about movies. It was King Kong too long. It dragged like a busted muffler. Why is Hollywood afraid to make a 90-105 minute movie? Seriously. Is there some sort of research I missed that said America likes it's movies dragged out and as long as possible?
I don't like this Superman as Jesus shit that seemed to be implied in the movie. The term 'savior' got thrown around too much. Superman is not Jesus. Superman, at least in my opinion, is a alien who was raised as a human with a good moral code who is just doing "the right thing" because he has the ability to. He's not here to "save us", just here to help.
I don't think they can (or should) do a sequel. It's hard doing Superman stories (which is why the comic has sucked for quite some time). There's three types of successful Superman stories (all of which have been used in the movies): 1) Superman faces off against someone equal in strength to him (II, III, IV), 2) Superman faces off against Lex Luthor or a villain with Kryptonite (I, III, Returns) or 3) Superman is put to the limits of his power by trying to be in two places at once (I, Returns).
I find it hard to believe that Superman would just up and leave for five years. Sorry, someone with THAT strong a moral code would not do that. Of course, he also wouldn't make a move (however slight) on a woman with a boyfriend so what do I know?
Before I talk about the spoiler stuff, the whole Clark Kent works with a bunch of reporters and is in love with the best reporter in the city and no one can put together that Clark Kent and Superman returned on the exact same day (only Lois's kid kinda caught on). It would have been one thing if Clark came back and a couple of days later, Superman showed up or vice versa. But THE SAME DAY! C'mon.

Okay on to more spoiler-ish stuff.

Ok, at the end of the movie, Superman lifts the humogous crystal city that Lex Luthor created and threw it into space. Not into the sun but into space. Um, I'm not scientist but won't that huge landmass become a meteorite that will destroy one of our neighboring planets. Way to think it through, Kal-El.
Also, won't those remaining crystals be a problem?
By giving a Superman a kid, Bryan Singer has taken the mythology of Superman and Da Vinci Code-d it.
I'm not mad about the whole kid thing. It was a cool twist. I wish DC had the balls to do something like this in the comics. The Superman story is legendary. You have to create some twists and turns to keep it fresh. But still, Superman has x-ray vision & super hearing, he didn't know she was pregnant before he left.
How do you end a Superman movie without him bringing Lex Luthor to justice? That was just lame.

Dear Marvel Zombies

2006-06-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

I despise you. No, this isn't a rant about D.C. vs. Marvel. No, this isn't about how you give Joey Q more time than you give your mother on the phone. No, this isn't a rant about how you'd pay to toss Bendis's salad. Shit, I WOULD TOSS BENDIS'S SALAD, TOO. I prefer syrup.

No, this is a rant about the shit you're giving Marvel over the Spidey unmasking. Among all of the internet crying I hear about how Spidey outing himself to the world ("OH MY GOD! Spider-man's GAY?" was my fiancee's reaction when I told her) the number one argument I hear against Spider-man putting it on himself to do the one thing he fears anyone doing to him is this:

"IT'S COMPLETELY AGAINST CHARACTER!" (c) Comic Fan Jackass

Now, anyone that as been reading Spidey in the last five years should know that this decision has been a long time coming. And let's be honest with ourselves, people. Green Goblin knows Spider-man is Peter Parker. All of Green Goblin's kids, bastard and otherwise, know that Spider-man is Peter Parker. The Scorpion (who now has the Venom symbiote) knows Spider-man is Peter Parker. One of Jerry's Kids that sits in his wheelchair on a rooftop all day until his family wheels him back inside for dinner knows who Spider-man is. Aunt May knows. Mary Jane knows. All of The Avengers know.

Mary Jane has been hinting for years that she would prefer Peter to go public. This is proof that comic fans have no long-lasting interaction with women. If we did, then we would ALL know that a broad that hot could get Dr. Strange to take up pulling Batman's giant penny from behind kid's ears at birthday parties. A broad that hot could get a Watcher to come down on the field, throw a flag, and demand an instant replay. Hell, A broad that hot could make Electro heterosexual again.

But lemme get back to the point. It's against character? I didn't hear any of you fuckers that tought Cap was acting against character by going underground complaining then. You thought it kicked ass. By the way, Cap wasn't even acting against character. Know how I know? Because Cap always kicks ass.

You guys need to draw the difference between a favorite character of yours making a decision you don't like and someone "acting against character". If you haven't noticed, Spidey has been slowly changing for a few years now. But that's a whole 'nother blog. (Editor's Note: Stay tuned for Invisiblist's blog on JMS's Spidey run coming soon!) He's a teacher. He's an active Avenger. He has fuckin spikes coming out of his arms, a robotic costume, and he's Tony Stark's fuckin doughboy. And that's just fine by me. Know why? My favorite part of how Marvel Comics has done things since I've been reading is their character development.

Ah, yes. Character development. You might define character development as "the catalyst to fanboy's anger; usually involving a character doing something that no fanboy predicted on any message board anywhere". I like to define it as "OH SHIT!" Whether I like how a character develops or not, I like to see characters I love grow. I have no desire to see any comicbook character that I mess with stay stagnant in their views or attitudes for too long. You know what my favorite parts of "The Other" were? First, when Spidey killed that robot guy in Stark Tower. (What was his name? Tracer?) Sure, the guy turned out to be a robot, but Peter didn't know that. It showed the state of mind that Peter was really in. The other was when he ATE MORLUN'S FACE. Why were they my favorite parts? Because they showed how serious the situation was.

If comic characters never "went against character" as you guys call it, they wouldn't be worth reading. Cap woulda never had one of his most important arcs ever. You know, the Nixon one. Daredevil woulda never became Kingpin. (Y'all didn't complain about that one, either.) Serious situations that showed the true nature of the characters.

I don't know what you people want. I don't envy Bendis, Millar, JMS, Quesada, Whedon or any of the other guys at Marvel that worked on Civil War. From the reactions I'm reading to Civil War #2, you guys want to be able to figure out what's gonna happen with your favorite character before all your internet buddies do. Is that what you drop three bucks every month for? To see if you're right? BOOOOOOO. I drop my three bucks every month to see what happens, to be amazed, to be surprised, to jerk off to how McNiven draws She-Hulk (and how Frank Cho draws Mary Jane and Black Cat, and how Jim Lee draws Psylocke, and how Quesada draws Black Widow.....but that's a whole 'nother blog*), and most IMPORTANTLY, to check in with my friends Peter, Steve, Tony, and Nick to see how they're doing. If they don't make a decision I like, it was their decision to make.

But hey, if you guys want predictable, you should just go read D.C. Or House of M.

(*Editor's Note: The Prep Time Posse will not be allowing a future blog on Invisiblist's masturbatory habits. It hits just a little too close to home for most of us.)

Pocket Change

2006-06-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

"The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be."
- Isaac Asimov, "My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Congratulations, Joe Queseda*.

You have finally torn the internet in two.

If you go to any comic book forum, you'll see people doing the internet equivalent of rioting.

I am going to try to talk about "it" without talking about "it".

Greg Hatcher over at Comics Should Be Good wrote a great piece regarding Spider-Man and the two types of fans:

Here's the thing. There's two groups of fans reading superhero comics right now, the illusion-of-change fans and the real-change fans, and each one is absolutely convinced that the other group is going to destroy their beloved superheroes. And it terrifies them, because they both love comics fiercely, and neither can stand the idea that they might get taken away. So each group is constantly yelling at the other to for Christ's sake STOP it, d'you have any idea what you're doing? I suspect that this underlies a lot of that free-floating fan anger out there. This is why so many comic book message boards have the social niceties of Mad Max's Thunderdome.
The illusion-of-change people are looking at it this way: I discovered DC and Marvel at ___ age and it changed my life, these characters are great, timeless icons, new readers need to be able to discover them the way I did, why are they so hell-bent on ruining them when they do stuff like make Spider-Man an armored Avenger or marry off Superman to Lois Lane or… (fill in your own premise-altering Real Change here)… comics are already practically incomprehensible to new readers, the base is going to keep shrinking, pretty soon there’s only going to be about six people reading DC and Marvel, they’re KILLING COMICS!

The real-change people, on the other hand, probably came into comics sometime in the late 80’s or so. Post-Crisis, let’s say. Real change is what they’re used to. It’s what they have come to expect. Their tastes were formed by Chris Claremont on the X-Men, or Peter David on the Hulk, or Alan Moore on whoever. These were guys that specialized in real changes that often completely changed the premise of whatever strip they were working on. So the real-change people think: Damn, why is it that superhero publishers are so cowardly! Quit with the retcons already! Dead is dead! Show some guts! Comics are finally starting to Grow Up! They’re not for kids any more! We don’t need to worry about some mythical eight-year-old coming into the comics store, you idiots, there’s no one under twenty in any comics store I’ve ever been in! You let these old-school geezers hit the reset button all the time like they want to and they’ll be KILLING COMICS!

Now, lately I have found myself in the "real-change" ilk. I like when the status quo is thrown out the window and we get to go in a completely new direction.

Think how huge it was when Gwen Stacy died (shortly after dropping off her twins she had after a booty call with Norman Osborn to Canada) or Jean Grey died (the first time) or when Superman died (you think we would have figured out he was coming back when they didn't cancel any of his titles) or when Jason Todd was killed by The Joker (Stop punching the fabric of reality, Superboy Prime!).

No, she's okay. Tis' but a scratch

These are things that changed our favorite characters forever.

I like change.

It seems to be comic book canon that nothing can happen to change the status quo of Spider-Man, Batman or Superman. They are the untouchables.

Or things can happen, but they can always been undone.

Only Spider-Man seems to have lasting changes but that's what we (or at least, I) love about Spider-Man as a character.

Granted, you want them to remain the same so future generations will know what you loved about them.

Well, that's what the trades are for.

I just don't want to spend however long I read comics to be spent seeing the same stories over and over again.

Superman defeats Lex Luthor, he goes to prison, gets out, rinse, wash, repeat.

Batman and Robin defeat The Joker/Penguin/Two-Face, send them to Arkham, they escape, rinse, wash, repeat.

For the last time!!!
(Until the next time)

Spider-Man faces the Green Goblin/Dr. Octopus/The Vulture, loses the first time, contemplates on a rooftop, defeats them (they never really go to prison in Spidey books), rinse, wash, repeat.

Look! It's Spider-Man unmasked!
Why isn't anyone looking up!?!
Oh, World Cup is on. Did Brazil win?

I think the big reveal of Civil War #2 could have been done better (If you didn't read Amazing Spider-Man #533, it really makes this whole thing go down easier....like Pepto Bismol), but I'm glad it happened.

Because now I don't know what the future holds and I like it that way**.

Now, if Lois would just get pregnant already. What an unsatisfying marriage this must be for her. At least, Spidey's boys can swim.

* For all the trouble Marvel went to protecting this secret you think you would have kept a copy of this comic out of the hands of the newspapers. Or at least issued a press embargo like they do with TV shows like Lost and 24 where secrets and surprises are everything.

** Unless, of course, the second Queseda's tenure as EIC ends (or by the end of Civil War knowing Queseda), they find a way to undo this...like Marvel and DC always seem to do. I think the funniest thing and the biggest sign of how the fans see Marvel and DC these days is not that people are up in arms but that they are already thinking how they will "undo" this.

Are you reading New X-Men?

2006-06-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t either until I splurged on the series this past week. I was waiting on my Preacher trades but they hadn’t arrived yet; I impulsively copped the latest issue of the Kyle/Yost/Brooks/Medina run and every one back to issue #20. Now, I can’t pinpoint what initially dragged me into this book. It quite possibly had a lot to do with a recent article I read in my bible, Wizard. As I glimpsed the cover and flipped through the pages of the latest issue (#27), all I could remember from the article was a line saying, “no one is safe in the post-HOM X-Men world.”

I love reading comics where characters get popped left and right and you truly have no clue as to what may transpire next. With that said, I was also a bit skeptical going into this book; X-23, Wolverine’s sister, was in the cast. From the jump, I always viewed her as a cheap gimmick…I was wrong! She is dope and her peers are amazing as well. Any comic that stars a Muslim mutant automatically commands my attention too.

In this case, Dust a.k.a. Sooraya, the Muslim mutant that Wolverine rescued in Afghanistan during Morrison’s classic run, also stars. The cast is rounded out by Surge ( a teen chick with electrical powers who rocks metal gauntlets), Hellion (Emma’s puppet and all around prick), Rockslide (a Latin version of The Thing with detachable limbs and a penchant for clowning mofos), Forge (Storm’s ex-boy toy), Emma Frost (who is 10 times more of a fucked-up head case than she is in Astonishing), Elixir (another dude that is a few fries short of a Happy Meal and has a death touch), Mercury (another chick that sticks close to Hellion) and a few other teen outcasts that get murked over the course of the story.

As aforementioned, hella heads catch bullets, RPGs and straight-up violent deaths in this book. A lot of people may consider the violence to be gratuitous but in this case, it fits. The over-the-top and incredibly dramatic deaths illustrate just how dangerous the Marvel Universe is for mutants and it also moves the grand story ahead with logical leaps of awe.

Pre-HOM, the mutant population numbered in the millions, they were running things and the powers-that-be were powerless against them. Things have changed; the mutant population has been kicked in the face with a steel-toed boot and reduced to nearly 198.

Many of the mutants sought refuge and safety amongst their own, while others disappeared into society desperately seeking to conceal their “cursed genes.” Those that stuck together made the wrong decision; everybody who wants to off a mutie can now find a bunch of them in one place and kill 10 birds with one stone. That is what the Reverend William Stryker does, how he gets there is easily one of the most intriguing and brilliantly executed plotlines I have ever read in modern comics.

Without giving too much away, the future is revealed to him. As a result, he saves a few people’s lives from certain doom and recruits them into his crusade…they think he is the Hand of God. This “God” is batshit crazy though, he stockpiles weapons, tortures mutant teenagers, worships a one-armed, hot pink robot and puts bullets into the heads of innocent minorities. He is a bigot, a sociopath and a herald. He is also one of the best villains to receive the revamp-treatment in comics. He will fuck you up if you are a mutant; man, woman, baby or child..he doesn’t discriminate!

Case in point, once M-Day strikes, boatloads of mutants lose their powers and revert to being homosapiens. Powerless, they can’t defend themselves any longer. Stryker takes advantage of this as Emma forces them out of the mutant safe house that is Xavier's. What goes down next is a scene pulled straight out of the Middle East, specifically Israel by way of the Gaza Strip.

Shit goes from bad to worse as Stryker’s army encroaches upon the grounds. They dismantle the security force O*N*E, that is protecting the small enclave with massive Sentinels. They raid the mansion, blood gets spilled by the bucket-loads and the outnumbered teens must muster up what little strength they have in reserve and fight to live. Hell has once again come to the X-Men; things only look to get much worse as the God’s God springs to life with a directive that will inevitably result in more brutal murders and gruesome inflictions of terror…

Back to the cast though, they simply rule. The writing is very sharp and has distinguished these X-Men from their numerous and ageless counterparts. That’s not an easy task but is carried out flawlessly in this book. The characters have more depth than the Mariana’s Trench, the dialogue is great and they are relatable. The angst seeps from their motionless mouths and you, the reader, truly feel the horrors that plague their young and scarred lives. New X-Men is one of the most slept-on books in the medium…WAKE THE FUCK UP! This title has everything a comic book reader yearns for.

The art is chock-full of vibrant colors and neck-snapping motion, the war is on and things look bleak. What a great goddamned read, I’m hooked! You will be too. New X-Men is violent, hip, emo, hardcore, horrifying, loaded with Danger Cave semantics, smart, intelligent and funny. It is the quintessential X-Men book so strap on your Kevlar, load a few full clips into your 9 and seek it out via shelter. Be careful though, death is on the horizon and it's coming for you, mutie scum!

Dear Diary

2006-06-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Today I got my comics...it's Thursday! Fuck your holidays, nobody cares. Anyway, I felt like blogging today so I carried my recorder with me to the shop. Then I got an idea, I should interview the homeless guy that lives in front of my shop about comics. Brilliant! So I did, then I'm like, "fuck, I forgot my digital camera!" Motherbitches. Whatever though, I'll just throw in some random flick, hence: Larry's grill.

Without further adieu, here is my interview with Spike and a random crackhead on a Capitol Hill street corner. This is an uncensored interview so cover your ears childrens!

The cast:

Me (your intrepid reporter)
Spike (our resident man on the street)
Crackhead

Love,

The Super Sexy Beast Justin

************************************************************************

Me: (To Spike) Basically, who are your favorite superheroes?

Spike: Homeless people.

(Shazam! Crackhead dude strolls up, gives Spike dap and sits down.)

Crackhead: (laughs)

Me: Why are homeless people your favorite superheroes?

Crackhead: (Still laughing and mumbling)

Me: (To Crackhead) That's sick dude.

Crackhead: (stops laughing and looks at me) Have you ever been homeless?

Spike: (interrupts menacing Crackhead) Because we're all crazy.

(We all laugh hysterically and I get nervous)

Me: Moving on, are the police the homeless peoples' villains?

Spike: Yes.

(Crackhead stands up and bounces out)

Me: (To Spike) If you could have any superpower in the world, what would you have?

(Awkward long pause)

Me, again: Anything? Ya' know like mind-control or the ability to pull all the ladies and shit...

Spike: I'd grow marijuana.

(Both of us are laughing out of control)

Me: Oh yeah! Alright man, that's sick! Uh, what else...oh yeah and what would your superhero name be?

Spike: Spike.

(Both of us laugh again)

Me: Alright Spike, thanks alot. (I hand him two dollars and bounce)

X-Men: The Last Stand (a second opinion)

2006-05-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Sigh...

I'll be honest, after I left the theater, I wanted to give the movie but after telling my friend about the movie I had to admit that there were some cool parts.

I don't know what to say about this movie. This wasn't Brett Ratner's fault. He did a competent job. There were some scenes that were better than anything in the first two X-Men movies. The Phoenix scenes were handled particularly well.

Whoever decided that this movie should only be 107 minutes not only ruined this movie but ruined this franchise.

It was clear that the writers of the movie had been given a list of things to address:

Jean/Phoenix
The cure storyline
Give Storm a bigger role
Solve the Cyclops-doesn't-really-do-anything problem
Iceman vs. Pyro
Introduce a bunch of new mutants (Angel, Beast, Callisto, Madrox)
Give Colossus something to do
Iceman/Rogue/Kitty Pryde love triangle
Jean/Cyclops/Logan love triangle

And they were told to do all this in 107 minutes or less because even with the short running time, there managed to be filler.

There was a lot of potential. The cure story could have been cool. The Phoenix story could have been cool. The use of the next generation of X-Men stepping up could have been cool. But instead of there being a main plot and some subplots, there were ONLY subplots, some being resolved, some being forgotten and some rushed to an unsatisfying conclusion. And because of that, I felt detached from the whole movie.

It's sad. Given an extra 45-60 minutes and a better writer, this could have been the best of the X-Men movies.

Click here for more spoiler-filled comments.

The X-Men 3 Review To End All Reviews

2006-05-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

It is no secret to anyone on this site or OKP that I am a fan of the X-Men. I have followed them for some time, and when I first heard about an X-Men movie, I was stoked. I remember seeing the first movie and really enjoying it. Yea, I wanted to see more characters, and Sabretooth was done really, really bad, but I respected it for what it was. It was enough to have me panting for a sequel.

Then came X2. This is by far the greatest comic movie of all time, hands down. You want to argue? Fine, but you better have a good argument lined up and on tap. Unfortunately, this movie also made the first movie look not so good comparatively. The scene where Wolverine unleashes and Colossus metals up still gives me goosebumps to this day when I watch. The story was fantastic, Stryker was a great villain (although I find Brian Cox to be a bit annoying), and the intro to Nightcrawler was great. This movie did promise bigger roles for the other X-Men characters besides Wolverine, but they didn't really go into Jean, Cyclops, and Storm especially. This film simply had me waiting for the next movie to drop immediately. I was very hyped for the next one, and when I finally heard about it and saw pix and trailers, I was pumped.

May 26th. Me and some friends go down at about 11:00 or so, tickets in hand, to get good seats and what not. The movie was set to start at 12:01, in five theatres, all of which were sold out. It was already pretty crowded, and they were filling up theatres as people came in. We saw our share of Wolverines, Rogues, Nightcrawlers (although I don't know why), one Jedi (the saddest motherfucer you would of ever seen... this guy had a blue lightsaber in Jedi garb, running around pretending he was a badass... it was like watching a sequel to that Triumph at the Star Wars premiere), and Batman(apparently, no one told him that he was a year or 2 late). We waited and waited, past 12:01, until someone came in to finally announce that the movie would be starting. Guess what time it was? 12:45. Yea, it sucked big time, but I was still excited nonetheless.

Before I go into the movie, I thought that Ghost Rider looked pretty cool. But of course, Marvel did make Daredevil.

X-Men 3 falls somewhere in the paradox land of movies to me. I liked it. Better than 2? That is the paradox.

The opening scene were just like the other movies, and it seemed like it began very soon after the 2nd movie ended. The Angel scene at the beginning was disturbing, but it worked. Unfortunately, Angel didn't. For all the complaints I have heard about underused characters, Angel should not of been in the movie for what he was there for. One scene, which was one of the only scenes that his father was in, even though he was the basis for the large plot of the movie. That, I did not understand. Beast on the other hand was handled very well. I have not seen a Beast that I have liked since he stopped being the ape-like version until seeing this movie. Kelsey Grammer fit this part great, fitting the size and the intellect it would take for the character. It was strange to see him working so close in the government though. The idea of the cure was good, at least to begin with.

Mystique was criminally underused, especially since she was the most badass she has been in any of the three movies, with the exception being the fight with Wolverine in 1. I like seeing Multiple Man, and the forest scene was pretty clever, if predictable. Juggernaut, visually, was great. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they pulled him off, because I don't think anyone thought that someone that big could work with someone playing him. The voice did not work for me at first, but I got used to it. 'I'm the Juggernaut, BITCH!' and the fight with Wolverine put him on the good side of the fence though. Pyro became the Mystique of this installment, and Callisto and the remaining members worked decently well as glorified cameos. The stars of the show were of course Magneto and Jean/Phoenix. This can be expected from Ian. He was ice cold towards Mystique, and the death of Xavier did not seem to phase him as much as you would of thought. I felt that Phoenix was a little too powerful though.

The X-Men, well, I could go both ways on. Wolverine was great, and so was Beast, even Kitty was done well, and the scene with Iceman icing up was pure fanboy enjoyment. The problem was the idea that Marvel seemed to forget that Cyclops was even in the movie until the very end, when someone probably said 'Hey, do you guys know what happened to Scott?' I don't think they did. I though Storm was the best in this movie, and I didn't have a huge problem with her. Rogue got shafted as well, but the big suprise was how they also seemed to leave Colossus out as well. Yea we got to see the 'Fastball Special' and him fight a little bit, but I was expecting a lot more from his character.

The effects were where this movie shined. This fight scenes in the Grey neighborhood and Alcatraz were awesome, were easily the best fights of any of the three movies. Juggernaut chasing Kitty, Beast and Wolverine cutting loose, finally getting a glimpse of the Danger Room and a tease of a Sentinel, and Jean going crazy, for lack of a better word, were all visually stunning, but the best scene goes to Magneto, when he popped Mystique out of prison on the highway. The only dissapoint was the bridge scene, which was way to long and drawn out for its own good.

The character underdevelopment was the weak point. First off, how the fuck are they going to kill off 3 of the major X-Men characters? I was expecting Jean, and I heard Cyclops was going to take a dirt nap as well. I actually thought that killing Professor X was fresh and quite shocking. Also, the underusement of other characters, like Mystique and Rogue was just wrong. I know why they always seem to focus on Wolverine, but the movie is called X-Men, not Wolverine.

The final scene with Magneto in the park was cool too (even if we all knew that he would still have his powers). The hidden scene at the end of the credits was cool, because I remember them talking about that earlier in the movie. There will probably be another one, and I will not complain if there is. Let's just hope that the Sentinels (true to form) and Gambit can make appearances.

All in all I felt that this was a pretty damn enjoyable movie. I liked the action sequences, loved the fights, and the fanboy moments were plentiful and cool. Was it better than X2? Action wise, yes. Story and all together, no. Both of the sequels were better than the original (and I did like the first one), so I am not dissapointed at all. If the 1st movie was good (B) and the 2nd was close to perfect (A-A+), this movie falls in between them. To the people who didn't like the movie, you really were not entertained? Yea, I thought so.

A Blog Crossover Event

2006-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

A Blog Crossover Event That Will Split the Internet Into A Time-Warner Style Conglomerate That Not Even Carl Icahn Can Fix-- Even With The Help Of Braniac 13!

Just a heads up that Mr. Daniel Clowes is a guest on this weeks Sound of Young America. Support this show, this is not the first comic icon to guest on the show and hopefully not the last.

And it's all Fanboy Bullshit-Free.

http://tsoya.blogspot.com/2006/05/podcast-career-killers.html

Damn!

2006-05-07T04:05:00.000-07:00

Damn! I just remembered that I forgot yesterday was Free Comic Book Day!

Call me sentimental, but I like to check this event out (even though I usually end up with nothing but Archies and stuff)

Did anybody go to the LCS?

2006-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

So-ooo… The Civil War is officially kicking, and I’m gonna tell it to you guys the way Ralph told Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike: You got to count me out.

When I came back to comics last year after a decade in the wilderness, one of the key terms and conditions of my return was:

“Under no circumstances will the Undersigned purchase, read, or otherwise fuck with any comics that can be characterized as (i) Crossovers, (ii) ‘Events,’ or (iii) Multipart Saga Extending Across Several Titles and Promising to Shake the Comics Universe to Its Core With Shocking and Permanent Changes (Which the Contractor Reserves the Right to Reverse Within the course of Six Months).”

Now granted, in a few moments of weakness I might have slipped off the wagon and found myself indulging in that sordid business we call Infinite Crisis, but that long, lost weekend is over and no mas. I’ve learned my lesson. I’m ready to straighten up and fly right, so if you guys call yourselves my friends you’ll not act as enablers.

Don’t talk to me about the latest 279-part crossover event. Don’t tell me to check out Annihilation. Don’t keep me up to date on the progress of Son of M. If you come to me talking about “Civil War,” the earth-shattering conclusion to your saga for damn sure better go something like this:

All that being said, though: New Avengers Special: The Illuminati was a pretty intriguing book, wasn’t it? I wanted to review it when it first dropped but it sold out at my store and I didn’t get to read it for a few weeks. By this point, I’m pretty sure you all know what it’s about so I’ll spare you the synopsis and get straight to what is so damn intriguing about it.

well… Maleev and Bendis, obviously. Especially Maleev showing that straight superhero work might not be beyond the realm of his ken and getting me even more excited about the upcoming Spider-Woman series. And Bendis ain’t nothing to sleep on here either; he does the thing that Bendis does best.

By the way, just in case you were wondering what it is “that Bendis does best,” it is not his much-vaunted dialogue, which I’ve decided is actually pretty bad, despite being enjoyable to read for its naturalistic rhythms. But just read Bendis’s Daredevil back-to-back with Brubaker’s and it becomes clear how flashy but ultimately ineffective the periphrastic rambling really is.

What Bendis excels at, the one true gift he has brought to the comics world is the phenomenon of “ground-level” superhero storytelling (Was he the one who originated that? Powers was the first time I took notice of the approach and it’s since spread throughout the industry). Bendis more specifically calls his style "Behind the Music" storytelling, and was often the case with that VH1 guilty pleasure, we all too often learn that behind the masks, our heroes are mostly dicks.

Even more intriguing than that is the manner in which Bendis deals with the Hulk Problem.

What exactly is the Hulk Problem, you ask? Well, basically the problem with the Hulk is that he’s a really stupid character who I’ve never liked. Sure, at the best of times ol’Greenskin’s been a pretty cool modern take on the whole Jeckyl & Hyde thing, but even when I was seven years old I found something incredible infantile about a superhero whose main power was that he got mad and wrecked everything in sight as he grunted monosyllabically.

I mean, it’s interesting the first couple of times, but eventually it just becomes monoto—

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR A MESSAGE FROM AFKAP’S MOM

Hello there, boys!

(What’s that you say? There’s a girl or three amongst you? My apologies, ladies! I didn’t realize how much things had changed since the days when I would interrupt young Affy’s little comic coffee klatsches to bring him and his friends some milk and cookies! Back then? Total sausage party!)

Anyway, I don’t want to take up too much of your time except to poke my head in and inform you that my son is a god-natured boy, but he’s really a big liar.

Sure, he’ll want you to believe that he’s into really “smart” comics and is above the primal exhilaration of watching a man throw a tantrum, throw green and lay waste to a city. Oh, but if you could only see him throwing a tantrum and holding his breath till he turned blue in a supermarket checkout line one night many, many years ago when I refused to buy him the magazine pictured below.

I was a bit hesitant at first (the “Lesbian senator” story seemed a bit racy for a boy his age) but in the end I relented and bought my son his first “adult” magazine.

I’m aware that he also peacocks around on that www.Okayplayer.com site acting like a serious music snob who was collecting Blue Note originals when he was 5. I bet he never told you that the first record he ever owned was this one. (Or, for that matter that on the same day he wanted to get this one.)

Even when he was in high school and college, I recall him buying issues of The Incredible Hulk and speaking enthusiastically about his fondness for “PAD” (which was, I admit, a tad disturbing; his comics habit made some of his peers view him as less than macho, and I hoped that he hadn’t actually been driven to buying feminine hygiene products!)

So take everything he says with a grain of salt, will you?

Okay, I’ll be leaving now. Have fun! I hope you all call your mothers more than my son does. You really should. Or better yet, get up, go upstairs right this minute and go say hi to her. Believe me, she will appreciate it!

Okay, so maybe I haven’t always hated the Hulk.

In fact, I don’t even really hate the Hulk right now. At the heart of things I think he’s a brilliant character; a logical progression of the ideas of duality explored in the mythos of the first superhero of the modern era, Superman. But like Superman, he’s a character who works best in his own continuity – or at least relatively insulated from other superheroes – and probably as a fable. Once you introduce them into a shared universe full of metahumans of all stripes… Well, they become a little problematic.

The big problem with the Hulk is that I’ve never been completely sure of why he’s considered a “good guy.” Unlike other Marvel Age characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil and Dr. Strange, his heroic career is not based the decision to use his power for good. This is a guy – a monster, actually – who’s got the ability to level a city block with his bare hands, the communication and comprehension skills of a three year-old and the rage of Barry Gibb.

Why isn’t he considered a villain in the Marvel Universe? Sure, he’s kinda got a good heart, but hey, I’ve heard that Super-Skrull devotes a lot of his free time to rescuing homeless kittens… Does that make him okay, too?

Not only do they not deal with Hulk as the menace to society he occasionally is, but at various points they have made him an Avenger. AN AVENGER, for Chrissakes! Banner has got to have that HOT weed connection, because otherwise I cannot think of why they keep him around.

I think what has always subconsciously bothered me about the Hulk and made his exploits so unsatisfying for me is the fact that while the Marvel Universe that was supposedly built around the idea of portraying the real-world consequences of super-powered beings in the real world, a lot of effort was expended on avoiding showing what the Hulk’s tantrums really mean. This panel from the classic Incredible Hulk #332 (1986) is an example of how writers have traditionally skirted this issue.

Yeah, thank goodness the people all got out in time!

For my money, the best and most logical rendition of the Hulk has been Mark Millar’s, in The Ultimates. If his Banner is an extreme portrait of male spinelessness, his Hulk is an over-the-top parody of macho excess: he grunts and smashes shit, he drinks beer, he’s hornier than a two-peckered billy goat, he smells bad, and he’s terrified of being thought of as a “sissy boy.” And when he goes on a rampage through Manhattan, it’s presented as an analogue for 9/11, complete with massive losses in human life.

Bendis follows this track in Illuminati: The Hulk goes wild in Las Vegas and kills twenty-six people “this time.” This time. Meaning that he’s killed more people over the years. (Meaning that the Avengers have been palling around with and protecting a murderer all this time.) And it’s decided that finally, something has to be done with him.

Of course, in the recent She-Hulk #4, Shulkie states that she’s sure that the Hulk has NEVER killed anybody, and that her cousin Bruce would surely have killed himself if his Hulk rampages had ever lead to anybody getting seriously hurt.

This discrepancy can probably be (and kinda has been) explained away by saying that Jen just didn’t know that the Hulk has killed (but come on… How could she not know that?) More than likely, this confusion is a result of the shoddy editorial work that has marred the Quesada regime and the seeming carte blanche awarded to Bendis to rewrite Marvel history at will.

I wish it were less mundane, though: Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if this were the beginnings of a true philosophical schism brewing within Marvel? Not just Dan Slott vs. Bendis, but what their individual approaches to superheroes represent: A relatively innocent Marvel Universe where we recognize the heroes because they are the ones who are, at the end of the day, fundamentally good… Or a darker, morally complicated world in which the heroes except for Spider-Man are essentially assholes with better press agents?

See… Now that is a civil war that I’d pay to watch play out…

Prep Time Posse

Wolverine

GEMS

My Love Is No Longer Blind

How To Cast Comic-Book Flix

Welcome to Sinestro Week

Black Adam 101

DARKNESS IS SPREADING! (c) Dave Chappelle as Rick James

kracka-THOOOM!!! - My favorite ______ is drawn by _____

kracka-THOOOM!!! - Bad Guys & the Team Dynamic

Kracka-THOOOM!!! - My love affair with a samurai rabbit

Bless those damn Limeys!

When Bad Idea Jeans Fit Very Nice

Melanism says... #2

Winick is German for 'Winner'

Melanism says... #1

MUST LOVE BLOGS

Roy Terdberger's Comic Book Happenings

Man, I read a damn emo comic.

A few sentences on Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm

A Titan Rides the Train

Why I'm Not Blogging About Heroes Anymore.

The Break-Up

Heroes Season Two: "Fight or Flight"

Heroes Season Two: "The Kindness of Strangers"

Heroes Season Two: "Kindred"

Heroes Season Two: "Lizards"

Heroes Season Two: "Four Months Later..."

New Joker PIcture From "The Dark Knight"

World War Hallow: Weasleys Getting Gully Edition

An Idiot's Guide to World War Hulk: It's Here (C) Common

Worst Comic I Bought This Week: Uncanny X-Men #487

An Idiot's Guide to World War Hulk: May Days

An Idiot’s Guide to World War Hulk: A Prelude

Best Music Video Of The Year

Superman Retires

I want to make a bold prediction.

First Look at the Iron Man Prototype Suit

Words Fail Me

R.I.P. Marshall Rogers (January 22, 1950 - March 25, 2007)

No Alarms And No Surprises

More fun with the Superfriends

I'm thoroughly convinced that Rick Jones could have prevented Civil War.

FROM THE DESK OF TONY STARK

The Good Captain.

I wish I worked for Marvel's marketing department

Um, about "52" Week #43

Have we addressed the Walking Dead argument?

Live From The New York Comic Con

The Brilliance and Not-So-Much of New Avengers

Prep Time Posse

DC & Marvel Have Got Jokes

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

comics in college?

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

Flash Thompson: Nerd Revenge Fantasy

KRACKA-THOOOM!!!

Thursday Morning Check-In • ROUND I

On Absolutes and New Frontiers

Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain

Missteps of the Week

Comic of the Week: Annihilation #4

Prep Time Posse

Spider-Man 3 trailer

LIGHTNING ROUND

City of Heroes

Civil War: The Bigger Picture

Go, Stagger Lee!

Nothing Else To Say But This

Clark, Bruce, Diana, and Rory: Thoughts on JLA #0

Slanted Perspectives

Dear DC

Superman Returns...To Star In A Chick Flick

Dear Marvel Zombies

Pocket Change

Are you reading New X-Men?

Dear Diary

X-Men: The Last Stand (a second opinion)

The X-Men 3 Review To End All Reviews

A Blog Crossover Event

kracka-THOOOM!!! - My favorite __ is drawn by _