Bought/Thought September 30th, 2009

I think I felt my mind leave my head because of that last post. :)
 
You should listen to the Coast then. You'd feel your mind leave quite a bit due to it.

Unless you think people who believe Sasquatch is an eight foot tall mammal who not only lives below ground, but is intelligent and is biologically capable of transdimensional viewing and transportation to be something you're not confused by.
 
As always, full reviews are up at my Examiner page in the link, yada yada.

This was a slow week, let's get it over with.

DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 9/30/09:

THOR #603: The true sign that a new season is coming, a shift from summer into fall, is not a date on a calendar or a change in temperature or the amount of sunlight; it is an issue of THOR shipping. For the record, the last issue came out at the end of June. That makes this one about 3 months behind, and that is only because September had a 5th Wednesday, otherwise this would have crept into October. While this title is not as slow as some others from Marvel, such as ASTONISHING X-MEN, nor is the latest of JMS' remaining projects (THE TWELVE #9 is ten months late and counting), it does make JMS' decompressed style of storytelling look worse than it is, almost to the point of undoing the goodwill of any issue.

Surprise surprise, after three months Coipel doesn't draw a page, either; Marko Djurdjevic returns on interior art, and does his usual fine job. I almost mistook it for Alan Davis until I looked at the credits a second time, which says something good. He's hardly the fastest artist but has remained somewhat reliable as fill-in talent since about halfway through JMS' launch of this title. This would be issue 16 if the numbering was not boosted. The last page promises the finale, in a separate one-shot, in "30 days". They had the nerve to promise the next installment in exactly a month for a title that has been shipping one issue every 2-3 months now for over a year. Now, Image has run into that problem with DYNAMO 5, but more issues of that have shipped this year than THOR, and they don't demand $4 for the honor. It's certainly possible that Coipel or whoever has finally had enough lead in time to get in JMS' 17th and final issue within exactly one month, but if not, there is going to be a lot of laughing at Marvel's expense.

17 issues is an awkward number to call it a run with; not quite a year and a half's worth of issues (on a title that relaunched exactly 2 years ago this month), but to give credit, JMS seemed to ask that his THOR be reasonably "left alone" by the rest of Marvel for at least 7-8 issues; Marvel more than doubled that. In sales the book has been a hit; June's issue sold just shy of 70k, still more than double what it sold in 2004. Still, it makes you wonder how well it would be selling if it was on time, and actually featured the lead character more often.

The last issue had a lot of pages with Thor, and this one apparently corrects that mistake; JMS must have felt ill. Blake arranges for Sif to stay at his Oklahoma hotel under a false name, which creates a cute scene with his land-lady. The Warriors Three also happen to show up in town looking for Thor, and take over working in "William the Third's" breakfast shop. The comedy elements help and are well done, even if some of the fat jokes are starting to feel repetitive. They still amused me.

This issue gets things moving a bit, revealing exactly what Loki and Doom are exchanging in their unholy alliance. Loki gets asylum for the Asgardians away from Thor and prying heroes, as well as a squad of specially made "Thorbuster Doombots", if you will, about to be launched at Donald Blake. Doom not only gets Latveria protected by Asgardian warriors, but also freshly delivered Asgardians to dissect so Doom can possible clone them, and perhaps discover a physical means to duplicate their immortality. Granted, Doom mastered the alien Ovoid technique, which sends his mind into a new body every time his own is killed, so in way he is rather close to immortal already; I suppose this would be an upgrade, Immortality Vista. Bill, Kelda's human lover (or "pet") last issue figured out in one issue what Thor and Balder haven't in about 15; that Loki is up to no good, that Dr. Doom is evil, and that there is no good way this situation will end well. While Thor and Balder hem and haw and do absolutely nothing to stand up for themselves, Bill at least wants to strike out and act. Kelda makes a point about how immortals see things one way and thus sometimes are slow to act or change, but it is something I heard about a year ago in INCREDIBLE HERCULES and it seems like too easy an excuse for inaction. While Bill is armed with a magical sword and manages to take down one Asgardian brute, three others seem to gut him rather quickly. Balder, however, witnesses it. Will this finally spark the dipstick into action? If JMS wasn't leaving after the one-shot, I'd say no. But he is, so my answer is "probably, maybe". I have a sinking felling he could pull a Bendis on DAREDEVIL; leave the story in a narrative corner and expect the next guy to handle it. That's how ASM was practically left.

I'll save a final analysis about the pro's and con's of JMS' THOR run for the next one shot. Suffice it to say, his ideas were solid and a lot of his execution isn't too bad, but the pacing is very slow and his choosing of having Thor and Balder all but allow Loki to trick them rather than create a smarter plot device makes them look like fools. Which is a shame, really. Loki would look smarter if he was outwitting rivals of any intellect. A blind puppy could fool this lot as written. Being saddled with two slow artists hardly helped matters, either.

Another major con, having looked back at my THOR collection, is that out of 16 covers, about 12 are the most stale, stock, generic Thor covers you could possibly image. Just various versions of Thor standing there, holding or swinging a hammer, with a thunderbolt or two in the background. They're inter-changeable. They're akin to some of the first few years of Ultimate covers. The notion that comic covers should be boring stock poses was a Bill Jemas idea, with the intention to resell them as posters. But for heaven's sake, Jemas has been gone from Marvel for about five bloody years, and that hasn't happened. This is hardly the only book with that problem; how many covers of CABLE feature something different than Cable, with a large gun, holding a baby/child? The TITLE DRESS tells everyone what book it is, do something creative! Granted, assuming fans are slack jawed idiots who can't tell what book it is by title alone is about the story for Marvel editorial. Why else would ULTIMATUM have made it past draft stage?

In the time since I started reading THOR, I caught up on INCREDIBLE HERCULES, and while THOR even at worst is still a decent book, the gap in quality and energy between THOR and HERCULES is at least a hundred miles. The humor is better, the pace is more kinetic, and it doesn't take itself as seriously. The morals actually hit home when they come, rather than seeming like pretentious preening. THOR, however, is probably more important to Marvel as a whole; it hinted at something not right with Steve Rogers, and had Loki & Doom team up before Dark Reign started. My mother was a huge Thor fan, but so far HERCULES > THOR. Hopefully, though, the climax attempts to live up to two years of build up.

Come to think of it, has JMS ever delivered a satisfying climax to anything he has written professionally within the last eight years? His ASM ended in shambles; Joe Quesada practically wrote ONE MORE DAY. Everyone used to rave about RISING STARS, and that kind of faded into nothingness. His first issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD didn't exactly light the universe aflame. There was SUPREME POWER...but that was years ago. He's frankly another dud from Loeb territory; an overrated talent who sells but can't deliver in the end. And that would be a shame. Hopefully his THOR run breaks that trend.

VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #1: This came out two weeks ago, but as I said, this was a slow week. I was curious about some of the reviews and gave it a try; I did read the last volume of MOON KNIGHT for about 18-19 issues (and one annual) before giving up on it. It was bleak and gritty to the point of parody and was a mire to read. Specter became a sociopathic psychotic, and while that played with his foibles, it made him a victim of them. Gregg Hurwitz, however, seems to realize this. None of the last run is forgotten; the stuff still happened. Specter still mauled criminals for months. He still killed some of them, and the Thunderbolts (under Osborn) still framed him for a murder he didn't commit (although he did kill Black Specter at least, along with Killer Shrike, last run). He still is haunted by Khonshou, in the form of Bushman, acting like an evil Jiminy Cricket urging Marc to kill people. But it's more subdued. Or rather, Moon Knight wants to try to be a proper hero again, despite himself, his god, and the rep. He makes his start foiling a bank robbery in Time's Square in broad daylight, catching the attention of the police, the news media and even the Fantastic Four. Normally this would look mundane, but Jerome Opena's art with Dan Brown's colors make it look good enough to be a movie storyboard.

The issue ends with Osborn siccing Sentry at Moon Knight, which is overkill considering he recently felt only Venom was enough to handle the Fantastic Four, that included the Human Torch. If the book has any flaw it is that while everything is executed well enough, it doesn't quite pop and scream of excellence. The reprint of MOON KNIGHT #1 circa 1980 to boost the price to $4 didn't help either. Debut issues should be cheap as possible to attract readers, but what I like about Marvel is they stick to all ideas, good or bad. I also am curious when Moon Knight will be moved to a triple digit number. How far away is he from issue 200? And would they include issues of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT or MARVEL TWO-IN ONE? Not including those, we're only three issues from MOON KNIGHT #150. C'mon, Marvel, fulfill my cynicism and prove you're beyond parody. ;)

So far I was hardly majorly impressed, but I still liked it enough to probably give the next issue a chance.

I also bought MARVEL MYSTERY HANDBOOK, but haven't read it yet. It looks packed with data, and I always enjoy them. If I could find pleasure in a MARVEL PETS HANDBOOK, then this one is a cinch.
 
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Dread said:
The issue ends with Osborn siccing Sentry at Moon Knight, which is overkill considering he recently felt only Venom was enough to handle the Fantastic Four, that included the Human Torch.
Click to expand...


And we saw how well that went. ;)

Maybe he's decided overkill is the best policy from now on.
 
Dread said:
Come to think of it, has JMS ever delivered a satisfying climax to anything he has written professionally within the last eight years? His ASM ended in shambles; Joe Quesada practically wrote ONE MORE DAY. Everyone used to rave about RISING STARS, and that kind of faded into nothingness. His first issue of BRAVE AND THE BOLD didn't exactly light the universe aflame. There was SUPREME POWER...but that was years ago. He's frankly another dud from Loeb territory; an overrated talent who sells but can't deliver in the end. And that would be a shame. Hopefully his THOR run breaks that trend.
Click to expand...
I think we may have brought this up back when his run started. He definitely has strong beginnings and then tapers off into mediocrity. Or, in the case of Squadron Supreme and The Twelve, he tapers off into apparently forgetting that he was supposed to finish his story. :o
 
TheCorpulent1 said:
I think we may have brought this up back when his run started. He definitely has strong beginnings and then tapers off into mediocrity. Or, in the case of Squadron Supreme and The Twelve, he tapers off into apparently forgetting that he was supposed to finish his story. :o
Click to expand...

I don't know, I consider Thor 1-600 to be kinda his first arc or storyline finishing out and that was pretty good for a finish. Some of his spider-man stuff was rather good like the NA arc, which was just excellent from start to finish and probably the best story the NA has ever had period.

I do wish he'd finish the twelve, I was loving that story.
 
True, I suppose if Thor's return to his exile is considered one arc, it's a very, very strong arc from beginning to end. But I've been looking at JMS' entire run as one story, and the material after Thor's exile has not been as strong as those first 11 or 12 issues.
 
I'm surprised I haven't seen any reviews of Spider-Man: The Clone Saga yet. Did everyone else do like me and decide it just wasn't worth $3.99 when they were actually confronted with the issue?
 
I thought my vision just seemingly blacked out a roughtly rectangular shape on the comic racks, almost like my subconciousness was attempting to keep me from hurting myself somehow, but I wasn't sure a Spider Man story was somehow involved.
 
TheCorpulent1 said:
True, I suppose if Thor's return to his exile is considered one arc, it's a very, very strong arc from beginning to end. But I've been looking at JMS' entire run as one story, and the material after Thor's exile has not been as strong as those first 11 or 12 issues.
Click to expand...

While that's true, I don't know if it's fair to judge something that hasn't really finished, I'm sure he had some plans going on there for a finish. I don't mind criticizing him for his bad stories (the Other, Sins Past) but I can't criticize an ending I haven't seen (OMD, Thor, the Twelve).
 
Fair enough. It seems like he's already losing a bit of the cohesion of his earlier issues, though. Thor and Don are backseat characters in their own comic and the Warriors Three are being played exclusively for laughs at this point, although the Latveria stuff is still pretty strong. Bill and Kelda in particular are still great. I liked Kelda's monologue about why she digs Bill and her very old-world perspective on familiar modern-day relationship stuff.
 
I actually sort of grimaced at the Warriors Three dialogue. Except for the sidewalk comment.
 
The omelet bit was hilarious, I thought. The fat jokes are getting a little bit tedious, though. Volstagg's fat. We got it. Fandral, Hogun, Heimdall, and everyone else don't have to constantly point it out.
 
I actually like some of the pointless dialogue stuff, it's gotten me to like these characters in a more three dimensional type of way other than simple "have at thee" types. I see this as actually building a real supporting cast for thor, which I love cause stories in the past didn't really go so much into who these people in Thor's life really are. You don't need the main character to be in his/her book every issue, sometimes its good to see what the others are up too. The best issue of BND in my opinion was the flash story which didn't even have peter parker or spider-man in it other than what flash thought of them. And my favorite thor issue (surprise, surprise) was the all loki issue.
 
Right, the main character can take a backseat from time to time... but right after one of the biggest plot developments that JMS had been building to from the very beginning? Sif's back! Thor rescued her last issue, yet between that one and this week's, you'd hardly know it. Where's the emotional payoff? I just don't understand why JMS figured it'd be a good idea to put that on the back burner rather than giving us a portion of one issue, even, dealing with their relationship. Instead, we got a page that doesn't really go anywhere.
 
Maybe he was waiting to do a full issue on it, and really pull something out. Like Thor/Iron Man or when he spoke to cap. JMS is big on waiting a bit to really devote attention to relationships rather than just eck it out a bit at a time. ASM was full of that.
 
I guess. Looks like we'll never get that now, unless there's a section of Defining Moments dedicated to them.
 
Mistress Gluon said:
I thought my vision just seemingly blacked out a roughtly rectangular shape on the comic racks, almost like my subconciousness was attempting to keep me from hurting myself somehow, but I wasn't sure a Spider Man story was somehow involved.
Click to expand...

That's just Mephisto ****ing with ya!
 
TheCorpulent1 said:
The omelet bit was hilarious, I thought. The fat jokes are getting a little bit tedious, though. Volstagg's fat. We got it. Fandral, Hogun, Heimdall, and everyone else don't have to constantly point it out.
Click to expand...


I'm pretty sure people can point out he's fat by eye, to be perfectly honest.
 
TheCorpulent1 said:
I'm surprised I haven't seen any reviews of Spider-Man: The Clone Saga yet. Did everyone else do like me and decide it just wasn't worth $3.99 when they were actually confronted with the issue?
Click to expand...

I picked this up. It's a good read, nice to revisit the story since I grew up with it.

The thing with it is the original Clone Saga, in which ideas were dragged on far too long, or bad ideas were used because they had to drag it along, had mystery and emotional impact because it had time to. Aunt May took so many issues to finally die that when she did, it had a huge emotional impact on the reader. In this series, she will be dead by next issue at this pace, and it's not really a focus because so many other things are being worked in to the limited series.

DeFalco is doing the best he can with it though, as someone who has been a fan of many facets of the Clone Saga himself. It has several of his touches, too... like the random bio-bomb which Kaine deploys. It is essentially green floating globules which attach and completely cover their victim, in this case Ben and Peter. It's a forced plot point to get Ben to bring a green-goo encased Peter to the smokestack Peter dropped Ben into years before.

They are even starting with the cloak and dagger, smoke and mirrors early, although with much better planning than the original Clone Saga no doubt. At the end of the issue it is revealed that a man covered in shadows is Kaine's employer, and he knows everything about Spider-Man. I imagine they will ignore the multiple false mastermind reveals the original CS had, like Gaunt, who was going to be Harry, who was revealed to be working for Norman, who had set the whole thing up. Also Traveller and Scrier will probably be left out.

In the end it is what it is. The high points of the limited series won't be anywhere near equal to the high points of the original Saga... but the low points won't be anywhere near as low.
 
Mistress Gluon said:
I'm pretty sure people can point out he's fat by eye, to be perfectly honest.
Click to expand...
You know what I mean. It's a fun joke, but even the best jokes wear thin (:awesome:) when you repeat them ad nauseam.
 
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