Comics are Awesome II

[andersonh1]

Do not look at this as "an old book getting changed around". Look at it as "a new book doing new stuff".

I can't do it. I can't do that with any of the New52, because these new characters have been given the names and many characteristics of the old ones that I'm familiar with. They aren't new, they're bastardizations of existing characters, at least from my point of view. Curiousity has kept me skimming the book for a few issues just to see how bad it gets, but I think I'm done even with that.

[Sparky Prime]

Spider-Men #4:
The fight scene was a bit shorter than I expected. 616 Spider-Man goes exploring in NYC and finds out what happened to his 1610 counter-part. The issue ends with him showing up at 1610 May Parker's house. The Ultimates make a pretty obvious "look who else is here" cameo, and strongly resemble the movie Avengers team. I get the feeling that next issue will be 616 Peter learnign a bit more about 1610 Earth and that issue 6 will be a big fight/resolution.
Grade: B/C

They're already up to issue 4? I need to get to the comic book store this week... And the movie Avengers actually resemble elements that were first introduced in the Ultimate comics, not the other way around.

[Dominic]

Maybe it was issue 3 that came out this week? (This series if fortnightly either way.) I have been tired this week.

As for the Avengers/Ultimates, it is Iron Man's armour that really puts it over in to movie territory.


Dom
-knew that cross marketing was the point of this series, but yeesh....

[Dominic]

Cobra #12-#14:
This batch brings me up to date in a few ways. Issue 12 is the first issue that I bought after switching comics shops and is the last part of "Cobra Command". Issues 13 and 14 are the first two parts of the current arc, (with part 3 being released later this week).

Trivia notes: Chameleon is established to have defected to the Joes about a year and a half ago, and the series itself takes place over a bit more than 2 years, compared to the 4 years of real time. Given the gap between volumes I and II (before "Cobra" was relisted as an ongoing series) and the vague timline of the second arc, this still makes sense. Chameleon's timeline is actually very close to the "real time" of the comics themselves coming out, meaning that Costa might be writing this series in real time.

Assuming that I read these issues correctly, it should be assumed that the Jinx and Cobra Commander who were killed in the first and second arcs were (idiomatically) the originals.


And, the content of the current arc? Costa seems to be running with a "once you are in, you are never out" theme and is applying it to both sides. Several characters are shown wanting out and being stuck and/or being pulled back in with varying degrees of resistance. Costa is focusing more on members of the Joe team in this arc. But, given the blurring of lines between the factions, this makes sense. Both the Joes and Cobra are compartmentalized, with enough internal stove-piping that team-mates often have different information while working on the same projects. Part of me wonders if the in-story compartmentalization is at least partly intended to keep Costa's "Cobra" isolated from Dixon's more prosaic Joe books.

Grade: A


Dom
-wants more Costa....now.

[Dominic]

GI Joe #15:
Costa turns up the Easter Egg dial pretty high here, going out of his way to make IDW's Billy a call-back to the old stuff. The last name of "Kessler", possibly an alias in context, is fine. That was Billy's last name as established in IDW and is no more of a reach than any other re-use of a name. But, throwing Chris Latta's name around is just obnoxious. Yesssss, Latta was the original voyssssss of Cobra Commander in the Ayyyyteeeeessss. The Easster Egg is obviousssss, but unnesssessssary. There are some nice moments with Chameleon and Flint. But, the Easter Egg is bothersome. (Ironically, if Costa had pulled this kind of shit in the TF book, he probably would have been pretty well over with fans.)
Grade: C/D


In other news, as this is a light week, and I am caught up on "Cobra", I decided to explore the New 52 a bit more.

Nightwing #11:
This is definitely being played as a detective series. Nightwing is at odds with a Gotham City Police Detective. There are shades of Nolan's movies here, specifically costumed vigilantes inspiring more costumed lunacy. As problematic as the Bat-books (and their implied time-table) are for the New 52 time line, the editors deserve points for trying to keep the multiple titles consistent with each other. I might actually go back and try to track down back issues of compilations of this series.
Grade" B/C

Batman #11:
As has been DC's MO since the first "Crisis", the reboot is used to make slight tweaks to Batman's origin. In this case, the tweak looks to be a recursive reference to the Owlman that showed up in Morrison's "Earth 2". He was Thomas Wayne Jr, brother of the Qwardian Bruce Wayne. In this case, the leader of the Owl Court either is or believes himself to be the long lost brother of Bruce Wayne. The ambiguity in context is likely intended by the editors to be a way to back-pedal if need be. Again, I am tempted to track down back issues or compilations.
Grade: B


Over-all, the New 52 is doing more to keep me interested in comics than I thought it would have.

Dom
-lingering on campus to avoid weather

[Gustavo]

Over-all, the New 52 is doing more to keep me interested in comics than I thought it would have.

Wonder Woman and Action Comics have held my interest, and I would have happily read OMAC forever had it not been cancelled, but other than that, the New 52 just doesn't do anything for me. I'm still reading Frankenstein, but it's been pretty hit or miss.

Ok, Swamp Thing and Animal Man are good for what they are, but Ellen Baker has been consistently written as a nag, and the two books are so intertwined that Swamp Thing cannot be read separately.

And I don't like the new status quo for Superman, but Morrison's writing is keeping me on board.

[Sparky Prime]

Playing catch up here....

Spider-Men #2
Really like the interactions between Peter and Miles in this issue. It shows how similar and how different they are in both personality and powers. Ultimate Fury talking with Peter is also pretty interesting since Fury seemed to have some high hopes for their own version of Spider-Man. Really good issue. And apparently Ultimate Mysterio uses a robot body avatar to do his dirty work?

Spider-Men #3
I see what Dom meant by the Ultimates looking so much more like the movies now. Iron Man literally is drawn based off of the Mark III armor rather than the Ultimate Iron Man armor, although the other Ultimates are still drawn in their Ultimates costumes. Not sure why the artist did that. Anyway, Peter still trying to prove to himself this is some kind of illusion is getting old in this issue. I mean, he knows Mysterio's tricks, as he demonstrated when he figured out the illusion behind the fake villains. And he has been to other dimensions before, much stranger than this. He should realize by now this is no illusion.

Red Lanterns #11
Good to see Guy following up on what happened with Rankorr by visiting the Red Lantern's home planet only to find it in ruin. This issue feels a little disjointed because they jump ahead in the storyline somewhat with several Red Lanterns held captive on Zamaron having been attacked by the Star Sapphires who apparently somehow knew the Reds were on the way to attack them. Abysmus returns, in a new form granted to him by his mysterious masters. Hopefully next issue we'll finally start getting some answers.

Green Lantern New Guardians #10
The Blue Lanterns put up a valiant fight as the New Guardians group arrives to assist them. Interestingly, the Weaponer has his White Lantern shield and hammer with him, despite having left those on Qward when he accepted a Yellow ring. Kyle realizes it's already too late to save the planet though as the Reach has cocooned half the planet already. Kyle calls for them to retreat, and Saint Walker believes Larfleeze is to blame for all of this. Another storyline were they've been putting off giving us the answers and misdirecting us as to who is really behind everything.

[Dominic]

Wonder Woman and Action Comics have held my interest, and I would have happily read OMAC forever had it not been cancelled, but other than that, the New 52 just doesn't do anything for me. I'm still reading Frankenstein, but it's been pretty hit or miss.

Ok, Swamp Thing and Animal Man are good for what they are, but Ellen Baker has been consistently written as a nag, and the two books are so intertwined that Swamp Thing cannot be read separately.

And I don't like the new status quo for Superman, but Morrison's writing is keeping me on board.

"Earth 2" and "Worlds' Finest" are the only two that I am reading consistently. But, I have the "Storm Watch" compilation and plan to buy the "Blackhawks" compilation when it comes out. I have been reading scattered issues of the other "New 52" though. I give it points for being a legitimately new direction that DC is apparently holding to. I will follow "Action Comics" a bit more closely as it begins flowing more directly in to "Multiversity".

I see what Dom meant by the Ultimates looking so much more like the movies now. Iron Man literally is drawn based off of the Mark III armor rather than the Ultimate Iron Man armor, although the other Ultimates are still drawn in their Ultimates costumes. Not sure why the artist did that.

The other Ultimates look pretty well like the movie characters. There was less need to change them between page, screen and back.


And, random thoughts on the Dark Knight:

-Not bad over-all. But, it is not as good as many people are likely to be saying. The ending has some fanfic grade elements to it. There are more than a few points where stuff seems to be conveniently in place for characters. And, Bane is conveniently stupid/lazy. But, Nolan delivers on the high concepts well enough. Grade: C


Dom
-kind of looking forward to Nolan's Superman.

[Onslaught Six]

And, random thoughts on the Dark Knight:

-Not bad over-all. But, it is not as good as many people are likely to be saying. The ending has some fanfic grade elements to it. There are more than a few points where stuff seems to be conveniently in place for characters. And, Bane is conveniently stupid/lazy. But, Nolan delivers on the high concepts well enough. Grade: C

What? Is it the fact that

Spoiler

Bruce leaves Gotham in the hands of someone else? There's always the chance of him coming back later, and look at it comparatively--Bane was the last one there. Bane led the revolution. The police and JGL can take care of everything from here.

How was Bane stupid or lazy?

[Dominic]

I am just going to throw my answer wholly in to spoiler tags.

There were some real fan-fic grade, and simply cliche, elements to the story.

Spoiler

-ohohohoho, the cop's real name is "Robin". Oh, clever.....

-why the hell did Batman have to live?

-oh, look, Wayne is at a cafe, just like Alfred wanted......

-a ticking time bomb! Because...that was not an old saw that was mock-worthy in the 1960s "Batman" movie...

-hookay, Bane did not manage to find and destroy Wayne's hidden arsenals and hidey holes despite having a solid base of information, plenty of technical resources, no small amount of blood and treasure *and* ~5 months to get things sorted out in?

I did not hate the movie. But, the above problems are bothersome.

Dom
-

Spoiler

at least Talia was clearly not knocked-up...