Bought/Thought September 2nd, 2009 - SPOILERS

[Upset Spideyfan]

ignore.

 

[BrianWilly]

Connor and Cordy was icky for a whole different reason. She DID change her diapers and she had something going on with his father before. She was basically his mom. [blackout]Xander was never a father figure. He was her first crush. Didn't Xander penis only kill Anya?[/blackout]

The early parts of season 7, there was definitely some [blackout]father/mother vibes set up between Xander, Buffy, and Dawn. He didn't literally change her diaper, but he saw and treated her like a child to take care of and be responsible for.

Imo, it often reeks of Writer Says So Syndrome whenever characters who have known each other for a long time without being romantic interests all of a sudden become romantic interests out of the blue. Things like that are always iffy, iffy enough without the whole uncomfortable age angle.

Every single woman that Xander's ever dated has ended up dead, I believe. From Mummy Girl to Cordy to Anya to Renee...even Faith had a few close calls, and they only ever ****ed![/blackout]

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I put a spoiler warning in the thread title, so people can drop the spoiler tags if they want. I hate having to use them in a thread that's pretty commonly accepted to be spoiler-filled by its very subject matter, so I'm not gonna use them.

Re: Xandawn. Who didn't see this coming? Xander was Dawn's closest confidante through all her crazy transformations, Rene got murdered so Xander's emotionally vulnerable, and Whedon and his crew just love hooking up people who should never, ever be hooked up. Would it be shocking for Xander and Dawn to start banging like rabbits? Of course. Does it make people uncomfortable? Of course. So of course Whedon goes for it. It's one of his two primary strategies with relationships lately; he'll either put likely characters together, spend a lot of time and effort building their relationship organically, and then brutally murder one of them because, I guess, he's fascinated with writing heartbreak in every possible form he can think of, or he'll just slap two characters together out of the blue.

Granted, I don't know if this idea actually came from Whedon himself, but it's a common thread in his work of late so I suspect it probably was. Either way, I don't care. I'm mostly just reading Buffy for the plot resolution at this point. Whedon seems determined to make me not care about the characters through various wonky decisions and misadventures that I can't emotionally connect with, so I've given up on them. Murder the lot of 'em for all I care; just leave enough alive so we can see the conclusion to the story.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I think it came out last week; but, I have to hype the new direction of Tobin's Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. It's a cross between Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. It's only been 2 issues into this new, bold direction; but, it all works soooo good.

So, how is it like Ultimate Spider-Man (in all the good ways)? You get young Peter Parker, back in High School; but, they tweek everything to give a new spin on things. For example, the first issue of this new direction introduced a whole new character, Chat, who is a mutant (hangs out with a younger, but not school-age, Emma Frost) whose abilities is being able to talk to animals. Chat, through Emma, knows Peter is Spidey...but, Peter doesn't know she knows.

How is it like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane? While we do get some nice Spidey action each issue, it's really the relationships that drive the book, whether it's between Chat and Peter, Chat and Emma, Peter and Gwen, or Peter and Captain Stacy. Plus, the art is fantastic, in that you get little things going on around each of the characters. (In this latest issue, I liked the little things, like a panel showing two gals taking a picture on one of their phones, and the next frame showing them giggling and looking at the picture. It has absolutely no significance to what's happening in that panel, as Chat and Peter are walking through the school talking; but, it just adds that extra touch you don't see in many comics.)

In fact, Tobin is in charge of the entire Marvel Adventures line. I'm behind in my reading of Marvel Adventures; but, read his Avengers issue, and that was pretty damn good, also. I have to applaud Marvel for this new direction; they cut out two of the titles (Hulk and Fantastic Four), and has Tobin doing the three that are currently ongoing.

Oh, and if you aren't aware of Tobin's work, he just did the Dr. Doom and the Masters Of Evil mini that was so good.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I was always curious about MA Spider-Man, and the Avengers line too. Maybe one of these days I'll try them.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

MA Hulk ended a long time ago. They canceled AVENGERS and Fantastic Four. Super Heroes and Spidey are all that's left.

 

[Phaedrus45]

MA Hulk ended a long time ago. They canceled AVENGERS and Fantastic Four. Super Heroes and Spidey are all that's left.

So, it's now just down to two, huh? Maybe they are just going to have miniseries that are geared towards kids, but not with a brand, like "Marvel Adventures." (Kind of like Iron Man's Armor Wars, or whatever it's called.) I haven't caught up on the Marvel Adventure Super Heroes yet; I'm six issues behind, and it's just been building up in my "Must Read" comic box. Hopefully it's as good as Dr. Doom and MA Spidey.)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The MA titles look fun but I don't want to start following a whole new continuity. I tend to stick to borderline 616 comics like Wolverine: First Class and Pet Avengers for my light fun quota.

 

[runawayboulder]

Has anyone been following Cable? I've been enjoying it.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Young Liars 18: "The music died today, it went down in a high flame. The saddest part isn't that the music is dead, but that no one cared"

I tried out that first issue of Sweet Tooth, and much like the preview I was pretty underwhelmed. Now, of course, this issue felt like pretty much pure set up. I may pick up the next issue or two to see where it goes, but I'm not feeling it. The art is pretty nice, though.

That was all I had. I know no one has said anything about them so I'm gonna assume the answer to this is no anyway, but did anyone pick up Strange Tales from Marvel and/or that Fall Out Toy Works from Image? I was curious about both, and might have actually gotten ST, but my shop sold out of both before I got there

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I flipped through Strange Tales at the shop. It seemed cool and I appreciated that Marvel was reaching out to the indie folks, but the price tag was just too high for a one-off that I'll probably forget in a month.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yeah, the price is pretty high. It has like 50 pages with no ads though, so I could see that being worth it as long as it was all good.

 

[Blader5489]

Director of Shield is still better than Invincible. That the knauf's essentially had their run cut short is criminal, especially when I read they had a Maggia/Madame Masque arc lined up.

Preach it. Director of SHIELD is probably one of my favorite Marvel books of the decade, even though it was way too short. Luckily, I have Secret Warriors to fill the void left by Director of SHIELD and Checkmate, and damned if it isn't delivering.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Howling Commandos PMC is a cool idea. I wouldn't mind if SHIELD never came back now that we've got such an awesome organization to kinda-sorta take its place along with HAMMER, SWORD, ARMOR, GRAMPA, etc.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I flipped through Strange Tales at the shop. It seemed cool and I appreciated that Marvel was reaching out to the indie folks, but the price tag was just too high for a one-off that I'll probably forget in a month.

For me, it wasn't so great. There might be some who like that kind of humor; but, I only laughed at one part of the entire book. (That being Wolverine finding a blue hair in Jean Grey's bed.)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, it's all humorous takes?

 

[Dread]

I saw a preview of the new MA Spider-Man; here I thought "Chat" was going to be an alternate version of Squirrel-Girl, since in the 1-2 pages I saw she was "talking" to squirrels. Instead it's a new character named "Chat". Oh well. I'm with TheCorpulent1, limiting my alternate continuity takes to one FIRST CLASS book, basically. Especially since I dropped Ultimate like a hot potato last year, and am not going back.

SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE is for girls. It's sold in digests with heart shapes on it. It's the sort of thing guys should be embarrassed to admit they read to other guys, akin to a guy admitting they watched SAILOR MOON in the 90's. Times change, I guess.

Oh, I thought it was meant to be an ongoing, but they ended it early since the delays were atrocious

It was meant to be an ongoing - Morrison was only going to stay for 12 issues though. But DC decided to end the All Star line after them.

The ALL-STAR line was intended to be DC's answer to Ultimate, back when Ultimate was almost worth something. Delays from Morrison and Miller crashed that. At any rate, A-SS was only an "ongoing" by a series of technicalities and whatnot. And is that how we like to win awards now? Not from what we earn, but from loopholes and exploited technicalities and fuzzy-eyed judges? No wonder children have no values.

That was probably one of my favourite panels of the issue, the hands closing in around the throat while he has this casual conversation. It nicely highlighted how, in spite of all his power and the position he currently holds, he is still just a lowdown street-level nutjob at heart.

Indeed. It was only a few years ago when he was still dressing green and throwing explosives from a man-purse. Amazing how a convicted murderer who killed the daughter of a cop and even a reporter and staged no end of terrorist bombings can rise to become almost an unelected Vice President at Marvel?

Aside for the premise, though, it has provided some interesting narrative situations for many books. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN was straddling a B average before DARK REIGN really jazzed it up.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Girl comics are often pretty good, I've found. I read The War at Ellsmere, which screams "girl comic" all over, and I loved it. I'm also planning to read most of DC's Minx line at some point.

 

[BrianWilly]

I didn't even know they had that line until it got canceled.

I've been reading through Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld. It's surprisingly not stupid but, wow, 80s drugs must have been something else.

 

[GNR]

Bought:

Sleeper Season One
Solomon Kane: Castle of the Devil
Five Fists of Science
Unknown Soldier Vol.1 Haunted House
The Sentry (2000)
Conan and the Midnight God
Conan and the Demons of Khitai
Secret Invasion
Captain America: The Truth
Invincible Iron Man : World's Most Wanted Book 1
Pax Romana
Astro City Local Heroes
Astro City The Dark Age Book 1
The Question Vol.1 and 2

Picked up alot since I have sh**all to do this long weekend.Thoughts later.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I didn't even know they had that line until it got canceled.

I've been reading through Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld. It's surprisingly not stupid but, wow, 80s drugs must have been something else.

I read that. I don't remember much of it, but I think it had nice art and I enjoyed it.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Has anyone been following Cable? I've been enjoying it.

I have been enjoying it, though I hate how they've villainfied Bishop for the sake of the story. It's interesting but I think I'm more interested in how the whole thing will turn out, not the ride there. Typically, if I have to hold off on a book for a week Cable's the pick. I look at it as my least favorite book that I buy, but typically after I read an issue I find I enjoy it more than I thought I would.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Does Bishop even feel bad about anything? He literally turned on a dime in Messiah Complex. One minute he's a loyal X-Man who fights for Xavier's dream with the rest of the X-Men, the next he's shooting Xavier in the face because the baby's gonna be evil. Then he showed up in Cable and he was practically cackling and twirling his invisibly mustache. I could buy his vilification if they at least showed him second-guessing himself and feeling bad about turning against his friends.

 

[kguillou]

Marvel just doesnt learn do they? They're just going to keep raping the x-men franchise until there's nothing left to destroy. Bishop's evil turn is just completely nonsensical and completely contradicts his character of the last 20 years. The X-men franchise is just a big mess right now, i'd say even worse than it was in the 90's.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Bishop shows a little remorse here and there but typically he's of the mind that what he's doing will reset the world with Hope's death. Basically, the only way I see him recovering from this and becoming a hero again is if he somehow is proven right and Hope goes all crazy and he ends up saving everyone in the process of taking her down.

But somehow, I don't see that happening really.