Bought/Thought 4/9/08

[Superficial]

Still gotta read Wolverine, and my only other book this week is Amazing Spider-Man #556

Zeb Wells is a Godsend. While the first arc of BND by Slott and McNiven featured beautiful pencils, the story wasn't anything groundbreaking. The second arc by Guggenheim and Larroca was bland and came off as Goblin re-hash story, mostly because it was. "Menace", as this new Goblin was called, was a 2 dementional character with little appeal because we've really seen him before. The last arc by Gale and Jimenez was trash and puke-worthy. I had all but lost faith in this "Brand New Day", being skeptical from the beginning.

Then Zeb Wells comes a long. He does two things right from the start: He gets rid of the corny Stan Lee-imitating opening sequences and the dumb 70s-ish narration. A word to comic creators: It was cool when Stan did it back in the old school; when you do it, it's cheesy. Wells clearly has a grip on the Spider-Man character. He uses humor at the right spots and writes dialog that flows smoothly. He quickly creates a fun, enjoyable Spider-Man story that anyone could pick up and enjoy. Really, he's restored my faith in BND and Spider-Man in general. Take note, I still don't agree with a dozen different things that they've done with Spidey, but this is a good story. And the art is wonderfully moody and surprisingly not a mess of black lines and color. My hat goes off to Mr. Wells.

QFT.

 

[Max J Power]

Fantastic Four #556
It's more of a set-up issue than the previous two. It doesn't advance the story much, but it effectively puts the climax in motion. In addition to liking the main plot, I'm enjoying the sub-plots and am looking forward to future arcs (though I have to agree with the masses about Psionics' name). The art was great as always; I especially liked the pages with snowfall and the spread with the incapacitated heroes.

 

[Elijya]

Elijya -- why's dread banned?? Enlighten us oh great moderator... please?? You KNOW there's no Data Protection Act when it comes to the Hype (heck, there's no DPA in the USA anyway is there??). C'mon...


edit: I so should have merged these last two posts. d'oh.

I don't even know what the DPA is.

But the story is Dread's IP matched that of someone who was being an idiot. Another mod banned everyone under that IP. It looks like D's innocent, though, so he'll be back.

Superficial up there is banned because he's an old user who swore up and down he'd never come back, yet can't seem to stay away.

 

[MaskedManJRK]

Let'e see, let me think of the ones I remember reading (I buy trades and read the issues at my shop, so...yeah):

Titans #1: Meh--kind of bland, but for the first issue of a series, it's not too bad. Plus the end with the twist of the return of Trigon made me want to try it again next month.

Punisher #56: Solid issue, starting to get the ball rolling. Can't wait to see how Ennis is going to end this.

Doktor Sleepless #6: Come bloody on, am I the only one here who's reading this?! Bastards, the lot of you!

 

[RockSP]

Wonder Woman #19: I hope the Dodsons have left for good and Chang's the regular penciler now. Excellent stuff.

Aaron Lopresti (sp) is taking over the art starting next issue.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, he's good too. I wonder what Chang is moving to.

Action Comics #858 - 863
I initially avoided this because I was enjoying Waid's Legion and I thought it was lame that Johns was just confusing matters by bringing the Silver Age Legion back to the fore. But, after deciding that I like the concept of the Legion enough to get over all of my problems with Superman and the Legion of Three Worlds and buy it when it comes out, I figured I should check this arc out as a primer for that.

Upon opening the first issue, I found I had a few problems with this as well. I don't like Frank's super-nostalgic idea of giving Superman Chris Reeve's face. Not only is Christopher Reeve not "my Superman" the way he is for people who grew up in the '70s and swear by the Donner movies, I just generally hate seeing artists "cast" their comics. If I wanted to see Christopher Reeve everywhere, I'd watch one of the Donner movies. When I pick up a Superman comic, I want to see an artist's interpretation of Superman, not their attempt to ape Christopher Reeve's face. In addition to that, Johns and Frank just randomly regress the comics' Clark Kent to the Donner movies' status quo--he's a bumbling idiot (again) with Jimmy Olsen portrayed as a kid (again) who calls him "Mr. Kent" despite their being friends for years. I hated that interpretation of Clark even when I first saw the Donner movie, and I hate even more seeing it invade the comics this way.

Thankfully, those elements either go away or are easily ignorable once the story really gets rolling. Reeve's face didn't bother me after a while because I was so focused on the story, which is, in short, phenomenal. It's literally everything I love about the Legion made manifest in a single story. The community aspect of the team is played to great effect, especially given the villains of the story, and it was great to see the Legion of Substitute Heroes in action--even if Johns couldn't help totally retconning Rainbow Girl to tap into his ******ed "emotional spectrum" from Green Lantern, which was one of the only drawbacks after the first issue. The god-awful costumes some of the Legionnaires had--especially several women, like Lightning Lass and Shadow Lass--was another. But, again, those minor faults pale in comparison to the fun, frenetic action of the story itself, which culminates in a Superman moment so awesome that I actually resented how much the Silver Age Legion centers so completely on him less than usual.

So, yeah, great story, great art, great in all the big ways, even if some minutiae annoyed me. I'm actually excited for the Legion of Three Worlds mini now, especially if it ends up mixing the three Legions into one super-Legion with old and new characters all swirled together like I suspect it will. Great stuff.

 

[Darthphere]

Awesome Corp. I disagree with you on the Reeve thing though. I'm not from the 70's, but Reeve is my Superman. I thought it was awesome to see him. Also, it's not fair to lump Frank in on Clark's portrayal, he just draws the pictures.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, has Johns been regressing Clark back to his movie status quo for a while now?

I know a lot of people love Reeve as Superman, not just people from the '70s. I always thought the Donner movies were really hokey and lame, though. Consequently, I associate Reeve with a really hokey, lame Superman--almost a really dry, postmodern joke on everything Superman stands for. But, like I said, after a while it just became a face. The story transcended little quibbles like that.

 

[Darthphere]

Oh, has Johns been regressing Clark back to his movie status quo for a while now?

I know a lot of people love Reeve as Superman, not just people from the '70s. I always thought the Donner movies were really hokey and lame, though. Consequently, I associate Reeve with a really hokey, lame Superman--almost a really dry, postmodern joke on everything Superman stands for. But, like I said, after a while it just became a face. The story transcended little quibbles like that.

Yeah, since like the first arc with Donner.

and Reeve was awesome in those movies. If anyone is to blame for the hokeyness of those movies, it's Hackman's Luthor and ned Beatty.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't talk about Hackman's Luthor anymore. It inevitably sends me flying off into a blind rage wherein I can no longer be held accountable for my actions.

Figures Donner would've regressed Clark to the moron he pretended to be in the movies, years of comic book development be damned. I would've thought Johns would've paid a little more attention to the comic interpretation on his own, though. Not to mention Jimmy's portrayal doesn't make sense with anything else he's in right now. Guess Johns' Donner fanboyism runs almost as deep as his Hal Jordan fanboyism.

 

[Darthphere]

Seems like it. Jimmy on coffee runs=FTL!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Jimmy makes faster-than-light coffee runs?

 

[Darthphere]

Corp, for the lose.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, if he's as incompetent as Johns implies in the Legion arc, Perry must keep him around for something, and I don't think it's lunchtime blowjobs.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

A very mediocre week imo...

Bought...

AMZ Spidey-
meh, is all i can say about it, which pretty much has been the whole BND run so far... more gods and mystical mumbo jumbo for the spidey realm *yawn*

FF-
This could have been a great issue... but i think the art killed it, i honestly couldn't tell what the heck was going on during the blizzard + superhero + robot fight... really killed it imo

wolverine-
probably the best out of the 3 i bought this week, which doesn't say much. it's not a bad issue at all... but i have a feeling this mystique thing will be lawn and drawn out.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Mystique arc only lasts for one more issue, so I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're wrong about it being long and drawn out...

 

[DoomJester]

The Mystique arc was pretty good. I felt this issue was bit weak, but I've really enjoyed the books, especially the first issue's twist.

 

[Red]

Why the hell is Dread banned?

 

[Darthphere]

A very mediocre week imo...

Bought...

AMZ Spidey-
FF-
wolverine-

Outside of Wolverine, are you really surprised why?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, dude, buy better comics. This week was pretty damn great for me.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Yeah, dude, buy better comics. This week was pretty damn great for me.

i buy too much as is...

AMZ spidey
FF
Black Panther
initiative
mighty avengers
new avengers
runaways
(anything young avenger related)
all x-men related books
incredible herc
Hulk
and anything SI related...

 

[Darthphere]

i buy too much as is...

AMZ spideyFF
Black Panther
initiative
mighty avengers
new avengers
runaways
(anything young avenger related)
all x-men related books
incredible herc
Hulk
and anything SI related...

More than half your list sucks.

 

[DoomJester]

Fantastic Four was still great. It just wasn't excellent. And Aaron's run on Wolverine really wants to make me read Scalped...

How is it that he blew Loeb so completely out of the water? Replace Mystique with Sabertooth and you have the same story, the exact same story. If anything, Wolverine and Sabertooth have a much better back-story, but that run was no good. It was a train-wreck. The current run is really smart and well written.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

More than half your list sucks.

um i love my x-men and young avengers..... *angry face* i enjoy the initiative as well....

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Fantastic Four was still great. It just wasn't excellent. And Aaron's run on Wolverine really wants to make me read Scalped...

How is it that he blew Loeb so completely out of the water? Replace Mystique with Sabertooth and you have the same story, the exact same story. If anything, Wolverine and Sabertooth have a much better back-story, but that run was no good. It was a train-wreck. The current run is really smart and well written.

Question asked and answered.

You should really read Scalped, too. It's pretty awesome.