Comics are Awesome III

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Justice League #75 - They sell this issue entirely on the idea that the entire Justice League will be killed. We all know how this game is played at this point, so the idea that this is in any way permanent is a non-starter. So the issue rides or falls on how the story is told. A lot of it early on relies on what Grant Morrison established in Multiversity, with the heroes of the Multiverse, the Justice League Incarnate, who have to deal with the threat of Darkseid who has been possessed by "the Great Darkness". There are a lot of references back to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, including an appearance by Pariah, who wants to correct his past mistakes, and of course the Great Darkness storyline from Legion of Super-Heroes, so not a lot of originality here. It's old story elements remixed, which is fine. That approach can sometimes work well. Rafa Sandoval's art is as good as always, so at least the book looks good.

Pariah wants to destroy everything, and his "dark army" are a possessed Darkseid along with Doomsday, Nekron, Eclipso, Ares, and other characters I don't recognize. The Spectre is also possessed by the darkness, so things are really bad. Despite this it looks like the JL is going to win until Doomsday kills Green Arrow, and then Pariah fries everyone else, except for Black Adam, who barely survives. It's all a bit anticlimactic, to be honest, and feels like the story beat that it is rather than the massive earthquake of storytelling that it should be. The purpose seems to be to take the JL off the boards prior to Dark Crisis, where the story continues.

Without the callbacks to past stories, Crisis in particular, the whole thing would feel pretty hollow. With so many characters, there's no real time to become invested in the scenario. Should be big, feels very small, is the best I can put it.
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Dominic
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Bad time to mention that DC is publishing two Crisis-type events? Between "Beyond Flashpoint" and "Dark Crisis", I am expecting DC to derail the two series that I currently read ("Nightwing" and "Superman: Son of Kal-El").

I am not sure what DC's post-event plans are. But, I am assuming that at least one thing I read is going away.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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World's Finest #3 - Mark Waid continues his tour of the DC universe as Batman and Superman continue to try to understand how they can fight the Devil Nezha, who has graduated this issue from controlling villains to controlling heroes as well, like Billy Batson and Hal Jordan. And Alfred. Robin and Supergirl are in the past trying to learn how an ancient group of heroes beat Nezha the first time, and to my surprise, the Doom Patrol are still involved in the story as well, trying to learn the whereabouts of Nezha. It's a book full of DC characters that feels vaguely Bronze Age with modern tone. If we were thinking of "classic" versions of DC's characters, that's the way they're written and drawn here. What a great book.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Former Marvel EiC and creative director of Marvel Entertainment Joe Quesada made a surprise announcement that he is leaving Marvel via his Twitter earlier this week.

I can't say that I'm sad to see him go. While he did help Marvel recover after they filed bankruptcy in 1998, he's also responsible for some terrible company policies and creative directions.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Sparky Prime wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:19 pm Former Marvel EiC and creative director of Marvel Entertainment Joe Quesada made a surprise announcement that he is leaving Marvel via his Twitter earlier this week.

I can't say that I'm sad to see him go. While he did help Marvel recover after they filed bankruptcy in 1998, he's also responsible for some terrible company policies and creative directions.
That's how I felt about Dan Didio, but I can't say that DC has improved since his departure. Hopefully Marvel will fare better.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Dark Crisis #1 - feels strangely hollow as a story, since I don't believe for a moment that the Justice League is actually gone for good, so it's hard to get invested in mourning along with the characters. When they killed Superman, they kept him dead for a while, and the grief of the other characters worked, and felt genuine. That's not the case here. As an idea, "how the world and the world's villains react to no more Justice League" is a sound idea for a story, and this whole thing might have worked better with that as a premise without the whole Pariah plotline. There are some nice moments, connecting Dick Grayson's oath by candlelight to the candles at the vigil for the League, Nightwing stepping up as leader, Wally front and center in the action, and Hal Jordan as one of the few veterans in the story striking out on his own to get "the perp". If I read the rest of the series, it's probably going to be out of interest in his plotline, since I'm missing a good Green Lantern series right now. It's not a bad issue, but it doesn't feel anywhere near as epic as it aspires to be. It's a routine Justice League storyline masquerading as a Crisis level event.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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andersonh1 wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 12:45 pmThat's how I felt about Dan Didio, but I can't say that DC has improved since his departure. Hopefully Marvel will fare better.
Yeah, I was happy when Dan DiDio left as well. He was another terrible EiC. But truth be told, I think Quesada's departure will be pretty much the same for Marvel as DiDio's was for DC... He wasn't really involved in any decisions on the comic side of the company in the last couple years to my understanding. But who knows... With him gone maybe it'll at least open some doors the staff wasn't willing/able to do with him a part of the company.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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the only Non TF book I'm reading right now is Star Trek: Mirror War. It's the TNG cast set entirely in the Mirror universe and it is GOOD. They do not half ass it. Everyone is as backstabby as they should be and it's interesting to see how the Terran Empire (I almost typed Federation lol), is doing after the rise of the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance. Starfleet is still around, but they are hurting, having been beaten pretty conclusively by the Alliance. It's also interesting to see the different takes on the characters. Barclay in particular is interesting, volume 2 was centered around him replacing the Prime universe Barclay and wanting to just live his life as a better version of him. Volume 2 (which is what's running now) is more action focused, but I still can't get enough.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Fantastic Four #44 - I think the Reckoning War is reaching its conclusion here. This is the type of continuity-heavy and continuity-dependent storyline that I used to enjoy so much over at DC before they rebooted and retconned so much that it became difficult to know what still counted. Apparently at Marvel pretty much everything that happened still counts, and Dan Slott uses several early pieces of Marvel and FF continuity to tell this story. I've read enough at this point to catch a lot of what he's drawing from, though not all by any means. The Watchers are essentially the Time Lords, who gave technology to a race that wasn't ready for it and ended up causing a war and a lot of deaths. In this case, 9/10 of the universe was destroyed. We find out this issue that it was actually one of the Watchers that caused that destruction, with the one and only time the Ultimate Nullifier was fired (the weapon that stops Galactus in the story he first appeared in during the Lee/Kirby days). Meanwhile Reed Richards is still dying after having absorbed all the Watchers' knowledge, and in the end he determines that the only way to stop the Reckoning is to use the Nullifier again. Cliffhanger, end of issue. The FF are all present and together during the final battle, and Doom is neutralized rather quickly after declaring that he alone will stop the Reckoning.

World's Finest #4 - I swear, I keep forgetting that the Doom Patrol are still involved in this story. Waid has adopted the breakneck pace of older comics here as we fly through events and locations and characters at a rapid pace, and concepts appear and are ended before too many pages pass, such as the fusion of Batman and Superman into a single being thanks to Green Lantern's ring and the two of them combining their willpower to steal it from a possessed Hal. Supergirl and Robin find out how to seal Nezhra in his tomb again, but while traveling back to the present day, Robin is lost in a time storm, so who knows where he is? Someone will have to seal Nezhra in his tomb from the inside, meaning someone will have to sacrifice their life to stop him. I'm sure there will be a clever way around that issue before all is said and done, but I can't quite figure out what it will be. This is the best book on the stands right now.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I put this here because I'm not sure it's old enough to categorize as "retro". I was thumbing through Thor by Jason Aaron volume 4 at the library, curious about Jane Foster as Thor since the current movie features that same storyline. I checked it out and have been reading it, and honestly the whole premise of the story bothers me, because Thor is the name of an individual and always has been. The idea that "Thor" is a title or a persona that can be conferred on multiple individuals as if the hammer is a Green Lantern ring or the equivalent just strikes me as stretching the whole thunder god concept too far. The idea that Thor could lose his name and have someone else become "Thor" just because he becomes unworthy to use the hammer just doesn't make sense. I can see the hammer granting power, possibly (though isn't Thor's power inherent?) but identity? I can't say I've been a fan of the idea or of the storyline as presented in the book.
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