Bought/Thought Star Wars Day Edition 5/4

[TheCorpulent1]

I'll have to review later; but, I can't help reading Fear Itself and think, "Multicolored Hulks...Hulked Out Heroes...Numerous colored power rings...and, now, a bunch of Thor-ed out heroes and villians." It's not bad; but, it sure doesn't feel original in the slightest.


BTW, I just got back from seeing Thor. I was extremely impressed. My only complaint is that you don't have to bother seeing it in 3D. Save a few bucks, because it adds nothing to the film. (Oh, and naturally, stay for after the credits. It's probably one of the best end-of-credits scenes from one of these films.)

Wow, I actually didn't notice that. This variant-on-a-theme thing is kind of getting crazy.

 

[hippie_hunter]

You do have a point about GL, I guess. All 3 GL books currently sell in the Top 25 (with 2 often in the Top 15). The main GL book has often been a Top 10 staple for months now, sometimes snagging the #1 spot. And it can easily be said that DC invested years of effort into GL and Geoff Johns on it at the middle of the decade and is now reaping the fruit. Goes to show what can be accomplished with a combination of top talent, relentless promotion and a product that gets decent buzz for being, well...decent.

Exactly

Batman, of course, has been relentlessly spammed for decades now; long before Wolverine was to a degree.

To a certain degree. At least with the Batman books they are at least making something out of them that makes a lot of them worthwhile to check out a lot of the times. That said, I still think that Morrison should have just stayed on Batman instead of making new Batman books like Batman & Robin and Batman, Incorporated. The Batman line as a whole would be so much better if it just focused on Morrison's Batman starring Bruce Wayne and Scott Snyder's Detective Comics starring Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon along with the side titles like Red Robin and Batgirl.

DC's problem, though, is beyond GL and Batman, the rest of their books are outsold by Marvel's. Marvel always wins the dollar and unit share because they release more books that always outsell DC's down the rest of the Top 100; even if many of those titles sink like a stone an get canceled or relaunched or replaced. If we're looking for metaphors, I see DC as the Tortoise; believing doing everything slow, steady, and old, will win in the end. Marvel's strategy, as a metaphor, is the Hydra; one comic dies, it is replaced with 2 more. You can never defeat it by slicing off heads or waiting for the heads to die. Both strategies have strengths and flaws. DC, for instance, has done a better job of keeping costs down - which was likely the true purpose for "Holding the line at $2.99".

The Flash also typically a top 10 comic and I think that DC is going to be doing something to fix Superman and Wonder Woman after the JMS debacles after Flashpoint.

Still, you can't say DC NEVER sells comics nobody asked for - the TEEN TITANS certainly can't support a spin off, yet DC sure tried recently. Not all the Bat-books are stable or high sellers, especially down the chain into BATGIRL territory. Superman is a weakened franchise, a shell of itself, yet DC still treats it like an A-Lister. And DC has had editorial blunders, and downright questionable moves. Creators who escape exclusive contracts can't seem to flee fast enough. Who would have imagined Greg Rucka at Marvel? DC also has had problems with some big sellers shipping late. Part of why sales for Jan. & Feb. 2011 looked bad was because a few big DC books didn't ship.

Very true.

We are now in a world where a JLA book that is FAR from it's prime and the C-List GL book outsell WOLVERINE by healthy margins.

LOL. Maybe it's a sign that Wolverine just isn't as popular anymore. Maybe take him off the Avengers

 

[El Bastardo]

The hate for Uncanny X-Force #9 is silly. There isn't a drop in the quality of Remender's script at all, it's just coming at us in a different form - a muted, subtle form hand-in-hand with some of the best artwork I can remember having ever seen from Billy Tan, though that last part goes for the last issue of UXF also.

Though, the reviewer over at CBR didn't seem to get it, either. On the other hand, considering Tim Callahan no longer does reviews, and the reviewer wasn't Chad Nevett, that isn't too surprising.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Got my comics read but had a huge migrane and then with today being Mother's Day I had to drag out my reading and reviews... so here they are now.

I got the four I planned on and decided to try Moon Knight #1 since I had some extra birthday money laying around. I also decided to get caught up on Secret Avengers since I loved the team so much and Brubaker's gone. I plan on cutting some stuff soon so I figure I should give that title a fair shot with a different writer.

Moon Knight #1 - I thought I'd give it an issue by issue basis so I bought this. The ending was no surprise since it was billed like so, but I expected that. Instead I was reading the book based on quality and if it interests me and it does. I don't really get the movie producer angle, but I'm not very verse in Moon Knight to care. Same goes with Dread's mystical versus crazy angle. The lead in mentions the mystical and he's definately showing the multi-personalities, but not being a previous reader of the book, it doesn't bother me any.

The plot itself I thought was solid. Mr. Hyde's never been a villain I cared about one way or the other but Ultron interests me so including a dead Ultron body has my attention. I like Moon Knight's crazy side though I think I've heard he'll actually be dressing up as other characters and I'm not a fan of that but we'll see how it plays out.

Maleev's artwork lent itself well to Daredevil and it compliments this book as well. I felt the art was great and the writing was good enough to match it. So all in all I felt this was a solid debut and I'm curious to see where it goes. For now, I'll be picking up issue 2.

Annihilators #3 - While I still feel this is DnA at their weakest so far, this issue definately picked up from the previous two... though mostly just for the last couple pages of the Annihilators tale, and mostly from the Skrull inclusion. Now I'm curious what comes next and there's only one issue left for it. We'll see how it ends but likely, unless the ending just blows me away, it's still going to be a below-level DnA cosmic book.

As for the Groot/Rocket Racoon portion of the story... still cute but I'm growing bored with it. I'm glad there's only one more issue, as beyond that I think it'd become tedious.

X-Men: Prelude to Schism #1 - This is wierd to grade. The story was solid but very simple and a little boring. If you're familiar with the Xavier/Cyclops relationship and the origins of the team there's a lot of old news here, most of it actually. The small bits of plot that is new does interest me though. I liked the quick cornfield flashback with young Cyclops and Xavier. The modern stuff was interesting since we learn that Xavier feels Cyclops has far surpassed him in his role with the X-Men and mutantkind and that, if Cyclops were to collapse under the weight on his shoulders, he'd be there to share the burdon. It was a nice relationship issue.

The biggest thing that interests me though is that this is all happening in the moments before something big hits Utopia, though we don't know what it is yet. I'm curious what that is and I guess we're going to get similar types of stories for the next 3 issues before realizing what it is, leading to Schism. It was an interesting beginning but slow and kinda boring in places for longtime fans. We'll see how it plays out.

Uncanny X-Force #9 - Yeah, like everyone else was saying, this was a weak issue and didn't match the quality of the title at all. The art was great and the story was interesting but full of holes and just off. I'm hoping that more comes from this from Magneto's angle so that it makes more sense but as an issue alone it's wierd. Also, I hate team books that go the direction of a solo Wolverine mission. We get enough of those everywhere else.

Fear Itself #2 - It was alright. I thought Red She-Hulk running was out of character but I do like seeing here here. I think the biggest problem here is that when Marvel promotes the crap and places spoilers out there as promotion... and there's absolutely nothing new in the first 2 issues of an event... it makes the start up very boring. We already knew about Sin and the hammers and the Oden/Thor fight and the Worthy (or at least these Worthy). The only new thing in all of this is that Red She-Hulk is involved (as we knew the Avengers were going to be focus along with Cap and Thor being a heavier focus). I'm hoping next issue isn't just some fighting with Thing getting a hammer in the end as a cliffhanger.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Wow, I actually didn't notice that. This variant-on-a-theme thing is kind of getting crazy.

Coming soon spider-island, what if all of NYC got spider-powers...

Wow, this is kinda becoming a trend.

 

[roach]

wasnt there a Captain America Corps announced too

 

[moraldeficiency]

Well the captain america thing makes sense as he was actually intended to be one of many super soldiers. So that one flows with the character.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I just read the final issue of JSA All-Stars where I happen to live was completely destroyed. Although the 500 mile radius seems to make little sense since 500 miles is pretty ****ing huge and only Upstate New York was destroyed.

 

[Dread]

Coming soon spider-island, what if all of NYC got spider-powers...

Wow, this is kinda becoming a trend.

Marvel's strategy; if something is doing well, beat it flat by expanding the franchise as far as possible.

To be fair, I'm not sure where INFESTED will go. I doubt a story in which a minority of New Yorkers get spider-powers is the sort of thing that will last forever, and is likely part of Jackal's overall scheme. I don't think it will become a case in which EVERY person in Peter's supporting cast will get super powers, unlike in INCREDIBLE HULKS, where that happened.

The irony is you'd think after the deal with Disney, Marvel would be more protective of brands and not seek to overdo them and beat them flat. Yet the opposite has happened. Deadpool got hot? Give him as many books as possible until the sales tank (the answer was 5-6 books). Hulk's hot? Give him 2-3 books, a few kids, and make EVERYONE Banner knew a Hulk. Thor's hot? Give him more books and throw hammers at EVERYONE. Cap's hot? More books! Wolverine's peak is past? MORE BOOKS!

They fail to realize that Disney is a company that reaps in millions of dollars on merchandising characters who they don't put in new material. Less is sometimes more. Marvel could trim their line of about 10-20 books a month and still sell more product than DC in sheer volume.

They also fail to realize that such strategies, during the 90's, turned formerly popular characters like Punisher, Ghost Rider and Venom into also-rans who needed to be kept off panel for years before they could garner even MODEST sales.