Bought/Thought Thread 11-14-2007 SPOILER ALERT!

[TheCorpulent1]

The line of comics was, but Spider-Girl kept going, and it's in the MC2 continuity.

 

[Marcdachamp]

She's in the MC2 comics now?

This was her second appearance.

I wouldn't say the line is discontinued, either. Apparently the recent minis have been selling quite well, and Marvel plans on continuing them.

 

[Anubis]

They've been pretty good too.

 

[gildea]

Plus, look at it this way; at least that PAD story wasn't undone by a retcon; Slott did it in current time. THE DEATH OF GWEN STACY, on the other hand, has been rendered almost COMICAL due to retcons and resurrections.

It would have been nice though if slott had done it in a spiderman book.

Something this big and it's influence on marvels premier character shouldn't have been thrust in an unrelated book.

 

[Dread]

It would have been nice though if slott had done it in a spiderman book.

Something this big and it's influence on marvels premier character shouldn't have been thrust in an unrelated book.

Fair point, and Marvel should have promoted the issue more, as this was vital Spidey stuff.

Still, it isn't like Slott is just dumping this into someone else's lap; he'll be writing ASM next year (and would have started in December had ONE MORE DAY not been late). This issue is like a prelude.

 

[gildea]

Fair point, and Marvel should have promoted the issue more, as this was vital Spidey stuff.

Still, it isn't like Slott is just dumping this into someone else's lap; he'll be writing ASM next year (and would have started in December had ONE MORE DAY not been late). This issue is like a prelude.

True. If marvel can promote the hell out of a ridiculous last page in new avengers and issue where something actually important happens deserves at least the same treatment.

 

[JackRembrandt]

Didn't Marvel drum up interest by saying it was THE last appearance of Peter Parker before Brand New Day? And didn't they send Slott off to do a round of interviews to reiterate that point? I thought they did.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, they did. I guess they didn't count on delays in the OMD arc, since the last issue of that (or the last two? I don't know how many have come out because I quit reading after the first) will be Peter's de facto last pre-BND appearance.

 

[JackRembrandt]

It's not the last appearance continuity-wise. That was what Marvel and Slott both said in the first place. Yes, OMD still has to wrap, but it takes place before the events in the last issue of Avengers: Initiative. Therefore, it remains Peter's last appearance before BND.

 

[Texas]

Booster Gold #4

DC’s best new title in a while continues apace. It’s settling into a fairly nice rhythm here, and each issue’s general outline is quite predictable (Booster inadvertently brings the future into being by his unintentional actions), but there’s a lot of stuff within that framework that works marvellously. This issue has, among other things, a Dark Skeets for Skeets to fight, and the reveal of who Supernova is and who he’s working for (although there’s still a Man Behind The Man Behind The Man, apparently). The Flashes guest-star, but they don’t really amount to much, even though this month’s plot is centred around Barry Allen. At heart, this is a light drama with plenty of comedy. I can’t wait to see what Booster does next month when he ventures into The Killing Joke.

Captain Marvel #1

In which Brian Reed continues his streak with the Marvels, and does his best to cover up all the many botches of Marvel’s initial return, essentially by more or less writing-off his initial appearance (except to one plot-important individual) and having a re-do of his public debut in this issue. And he comes up with a pretty plausible explanation, and a good way to handle it. Reed sets up all his plot points here, and while he doesn’t go too deeply into Mar-Vell himself yet, he seems to have a good handle on him, and where he wants to go with him. I look forward to seeing Cap interact with Carol next issue. Lee Weeks’ art is very good, although his street-level stuff seems a somewhat odd fit for a cosmic hero like Mar-Vell.

Fables #67

In which Willingham lays out how Ambrose intends to survive the Empire’s assault, and also demonstrates his kingly prowess. It’s rather hard to say much about an individual issue of Fables I find, most times, other than that it’s a consistently entertaining read. The book spent about a half-a-dozen issues in low-gear in the 50s and early 60s, but it’s now gone into high gear, and really notable developments occur at an incredible pace (Haven sprung up, what, last issue?). The other Fables are becoming a rather negligible presence in this story right now, but Ambrose (who, as Flycatcher, I never had much interest in) has become a compelling main character.

Green Arrow and Black Canary #2

I’m reading this initial arc just to see what happens with Green Arrow, and also with the Shamazons (out of morbid curiosity, I suppose). There’s a major ongoing continuity issue between this issue and this week’s issue of Wonder Woman, which I’ll get into in my WW review. Sufficed to say that Dinah, Mia, and Conner head to the Shamazon Island to rescue Ollie, with the ladies providing a diversion. "Diversion" is about the only explanation I can find for Mia’s behaviour in part of this issue, which includes a hysterical rant whose central point I just can’t grasp. Cliff Chiang’s art is fantastic (he remembers that Connor is Asian, that Mia has an emblem rather than a boob-window, etc.).

House of M: Avengers #1

There’s a certain feeling of pointlessness underlying this whole project, and, while "greater relevance" should not objectively be necessary (many of the greatest comics stories are Elseworlds and the like), the fact that the author outright said this project exists solely for Marvel to respond to strong demand for "House of M" trades just accentuates this feeling. I’m buying this for Mike Perkins, primarily, one of my favourite artists, now apparently striking out on his own after a rotating run on Captain America. I hope he ends up on one of the post-MC X-titles. On an art note, I prefer his art when Frank D’Armata is colouring, based on this issue. In terms of story, it’s mainly the origin of HoM Luke Cage, who still proudly wears his silk shirt, and his posse. It’s nicely handled, for what it is.

Thor #4

JMS continues the s-l-o-o-w pacing of this opening story, which is admirable on the one hand, since he’s not being rushed by commercial considerations, and is trying to play the return of the Asgardian Gods as something more than a one-issue reset; but it can also be a bit boring. In this issue, Donald/Thor decamp to Africa for a Darfur-analogue, where Donald treats some wounds and Thor trades some rounds with a genocidal militia. It’s sort of an action sequence, albeit one without stakes. And, as you can tell from the cover, Thor finds the Warriors Three, who actually get a few lines here, as well as Heimdall. Thor demonstrates some pretty impressive power here, creating a massive gorge with a single hammer-blow. The message about African intervention is kind of mixed, since the tribal leader says Africans must solve their own problems and Western whites can’t help; but Blake helps earlier, as does Thor, even if he doesn’t solve the situation. Eh.

Wonder Woman #14

After a year-and-a-half-long gang-rape by a clutch of DC personnel (including a woman, so it’s at least a gender-equal affair), Gail Simone arrives to take Diana to the ER. All things considered, a pretty decent start from Simone, and definitely better than anyone we’ve had previously for a year-and-a-half (not that that says much). All the weaknesses of this issue pertain to stuff previous writers and editorial did, so I can’t hold that against her, and the strengths are all her own. Diana seems competent and explicitly says she knows who she is and what she’’s about, a big improvement. Nemesis is semi-entertaining (but should still go the way of Trevor Barnes). The hints with Hippolyta sound pretty interesting. And everyone loves a good slugfest with Nazis. The gorillas should definitely stick around, too. I’m onboard. Now, someone really has to explain what’s going on with Themyscira, since there seem to be at least two of them, but everyone acts like each they’re the same.

World War Hulk #5

Big anti-climax that I mostly predicted, with the one unknown, the outcome of the Hulk vs. Sentry fight, left largely unexplained (okay, entirely unexplained), and the Illuminati somehow, in a few minutes, devising a more effective anti-Hulk weapon than they’d been able to do in the preceding 24 hours they were granted. The question of who really blew up Sakaar is resolved, but those responsible are the height of unmentioned, with secondary blame being accorded to Miek (who, within the actual WWH miniseries, hasn’t really had any time). I prefer Civil War, for all its flaws.

X-Factor #25

Now, onto a good crossover. Messiah Complex hits its third issue, and it’s consistently pretty good to watch. It’s amusing that X-Factor, the third-lowest selling title of the four, will have the best art of the crossover, from the looks of it (and from a fill-in penciller, at that); Eaton’s stuff is excellent. I hope he gets a permanent gig post-MC, because he’s earned it after the last year or so of rotation through various X-assignments. Pursuant to Cyclops’ orders, Madrox and Layla go to see Forge, who is planning to send Jamie’s dupes as reconnaissance to two new alternate futures that have popped up where mutants are detected. Layla throws a wrench into this by going along on what is apparently a one-way trip. Cyclops’ plan, in seems, is to subliminally influence the dupes to commit suicide as soon as they have the relevant information, thus transmitting it to Jamie; X-Men/Factor relations are not being greatly improved at the moment, although Siryn and Wolfsbane seem to work with him quite cheerfully. Rictor infiltrates a chapter of the Purifiers (who are led by a guy who looks rather like Morgan Freeman), who have a lot of high-tech weaponry from a still-as-yet-unknown source. And the New X-Men talk with Cyclops, demanding a piece of the action. The characters are being introduced to the audience quite effectively here (essentially showing up in the issue before they take centre-stage, as X-Factor did last week).

Thor # 4- you do realize it is slow paced so that the arc will go 5 issues or so then be published as Trade Paperback, right

 

[Marcdachamp]

They've been pretty good too.

Yeah, they really have. They're a lot of fun.

 

[yenaled]

Avenegers: The Initiative #7

This made me realize how much a Spider-Man book would work with the current status-quo if people just sat down and wrote Peter without marching him onto the next major life changing event and stuck by a direction for once.

Really enjoy this book, really like the Scarlet-Spiders and really like the threads Slott is weaving in this book and I love how he sewed reasonable doubt into the unmasking without denying it, ignoring it or using some mystical who-do-voodoo.

Thor #4

It needs to come out more because I really love this book. Thor feels like such an amazingly, powerful force in it - and that's just so right.

Black Adam #4

Just as you think DC are burning all their cash cows, Black Adam saves innocent people then flies a man into the Thermosphere. All is good.

 

[JackRembrandt]

Who are the Avenegers?

 

[yenaled]

It's a secret.

 

[JackRembrandt]

Ooh, tell me, tell me!

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Avenegers: The Initiative #7

This made me realize how much a Spider-Man book would work with the current status-quo if people just sat down and wrote Peter without marching him onto the next major life changing event and stuck by a direction for once.

Really enjoy this book, really like the Scarlet-Spiders and really like the threads Slott is weaving in this book and I love how he sewed reasonable doubt into the unmasking without denying it, ignoring it or using some mystical who-do-voodoo.

Thor #4

It needs to come out more because I really love this book. Thor feels like such an amazingly, powerful force in it - and that's just so right.

Black Adam #4

Just as you think DC are burning all their cash cows, Black Adam saves innocent people then flies a man into the Thermosphere. All is good.

I enjoyed how they're trying to remask Pete. Which is leaps and bounds better than trying to remask Tony. That writer should take a few lessons from this one.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Just read World War Hulk #5. I see reviews are kind of mixed on here; but, I thought WWH ended up being a big, steaming pile of crap. There hasn't been an event I wasn't looking forward to more than this...after all, don't forget this was a year and a half in the making. All the friggin' build up, all the "who is going to side with the Hulk and who won't," all the "Amadeus Cho is going to be a key figure in this story" never really panned out. The tie-in's were a joke, the characters Hulk brought with him turned out to be a bunch of flunkies who just stood around saying "go Hulk," the ending let all the supposed people at fault for killing Hulk's planet off the hook, and now we go from one Hulk book to numerous spin-offs...none of which will feature The Hulk. Also, we get a bunch of possible deaths...all of which will just be reversed somewhere down the line.

Finally, the art is this book just looked rushed.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

I enjoyed how they're trying to remask Pete. Which is leaps and bounds better than trying to remask Tony. That writer should take a few lessons from this one.

What? Who Tony Stark? Nobody's trying to remask him.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They attempted to before Civil War. It was... not so good. And, as it turns out, it was rendered so pointless that it became kind of funny, since Tony unmasked himself again in CW.

 

[JackRembrandt]

Tony's public/secret identity has been a series of cluster****s.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It looks like it'll permanently be public now, at least. I don't really care, I'm just glad they came down firmly on one side or the other. Isn't Daredevil's secret ID still a cluster****?

 

[JackRembrandt]

It's better being public. It makes his life even more stressful.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

They attempted to before Civil War. It was... not so good. And, as it turns out, it was rendered so pointless that it became kind of funny, since Tony unmasked himself again in CW.

Oh, I thought she was talking about right now.

It looks like it'll permanently be public now, at least. I don't really care, I'm just glad they came down firmly on one side or the other. Isn't Daredevil's secret ID still a cluster****?

A lot of people suspect but nobody can prove it.

 

[JackRembrandt]

A lot of people suspect but nobody can prove it.

Plenty of people can prove it.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Well, nobody that wants to put Murdock away.