Comics are Awesome II

[andersonh1]

Scourge is back! Nice to see you! Stick around.

[BWprowl]

Avenging Spider-Man #16-
Oh hey, Chris Yost wrote this one too. It’s got the Superior Spider-Jerk ‘teaming up’ with the X-Men to take down…a giant spider. There’s an amusing bit early on where Otto tries to use his new HUD lenses to scan the beast for information, and all he gets is information on the common garden spider it’s a blown up version of. The X-Men (well, not all of them, of course, but some of the more recognizable ones) show up to try to stop the creature because they need a reason to appear in a team-up book-I mean, because the giant spider is apparently a mutant and that makes it an X-Men problem. Yeah, totally. Anyway, the thing here is seeing how the All-New, All-Hardcore Superior Spider-Man handles teaming up with other superheroes. Goes pretty much how you expect, especially when Otto actually calls out the mutants for nearly destroying the earth a while back in AvX. We also get to see that Spider-Otto isn’t at all above taking Spidey’s usual “fight Wolverine every time the two meet in a team-up book” thing farther than Peter ever would, and he’s actually more than a match for ol’ Sniktbub. We also see that, having access to Spider-Man’s wit and attitude (apparently memories help you do that), he can weasel out of telepaths reading his mind to discover his secret. Also, Iceman actually comments on how Spider-Man is acting ‘edgy’ all of a sudden. That was pretty much the highlight of the issue for me. This is pretty much a point-establishing issue, giving a baseline situation to answer some of the questions you would’ve had about how Superior Spider-Man would interact with other superheroes (the way he less works together with them and more just manipulates them into doing what he needs to take down the giant spider is very telling). It’s a simple story, but one that had a reason for existing, and it lays the foundation for more like it to come.

Oh, and then at the end, it turns out the giant spider was actually apparently a mutant Gwen Stacy clone, and that the whole thing was the work of the goddamn Jackal. I laughed. I laughed so hard.

[Dominic]

It never ceases to amaze me how much bad comics mileage Marvel manages to squeeze out of Gwen Stacy, despite her being dead.

On a related note, yesterday's issue of "Dark Avengers" (I neither recall nor care to check the issue number) was one more reason for me to avoid Marvel. Apparently, USAgent got his missing limbs back and has thus been set back to late 80s spec. Rock on Marvel. Just keep making your comics less consequential, even unto themselves.


Cobra #20:
The Joes attempt to rescue Ronin from the Oktober Guard goes awry, leaving several more members of the team captured. The next issue is the last one before the series gets cancelled, re-titled and re-numbered as "Cobra Files". Given that "Cobra Files" has the same creative team (Costa and Fuso), it may well prove to be a straight continuation of "Cobra". But, I get the feeling that Costa has at least one significant change planned, specifically having Tomax break away from the Joes.
Grade: B

Team 7 #4:
The team's fight with Eclipso wraps up and..... This is not a bad book. And, I really never expected it to wow me consistently. (I am in more for the high concept and because it is passable filler.) But, this issue just fell flat. And, while I am over all in favour of the changes DC has been making, I find that I miss the old Amanda Waller. There is plenty of room for the new Amanda Waller to become close enough to the one I remember. But, old Amanda Waller was just a more interesting character in the hands of certain writers. The next issue will be introducing New 52 Spartan.
Grade: C


Banshee (Origin):
This is a freebie that is likely still available in most shops. Apparently, it ties in with a television show about a mob princess and her mob boyfriend who are hiding out after stealing from her mobster father. The comic does not really stand out. Some of this is the fault of the artist and page layouts (some sequences are very unclear and could have been improved with one or two panels being changed). But, the writing does not really deliver on much beyond "these are the characters". Maybe the show is more interesting. I dunno.
Grade: C/D


Dom
-hoping to finish "Galactic Storm" in the next week or two.

[andersonh1]

Team 7 #4:
The team's fight with Eclipso wraps up and..... This is not a bad book. And, I really never expected it to wow me consistently. (I am in more for the high concept and because it is passable filler.)

I wouldn't get too attached to it. Sales are dropping like a rock, even given the expected drop off from first issue to second. Enjoy it while you can.

But, old Amanda Waller was just a more interesting character in the hands of certain writers.

She was. Just about every character I tried in the New 52 used to be more interesting and more likeable than they are now.

[Dominic]

Who cares about likability? Waller is a special case because there were so few, if any, other characters like her in comics. She undermined stereotypes about the genre. Now, she is just one more character on the page.


I am not overly attached to "Team 7". It is something that I just sort of read. It has potential, but it not my main priority.


Dom

[BWprowl]

It never ceases to amaze me how much bad comics mileage Marvel manages to squeeze out of Gwen Stacy, despite her being dead.

I think it's much more impressive that she's managed to never legitimately come back to life.

And, while I am over all in favour of the changes DC has been making, I find that I miss the old Amanda Waller. There is plenty of room for the new Amanda Waller to become close enough to the one I remember. But, old Amanda Waller was just a more interesting character in the hands of certain writers.

Wait a tic, weren't you the one chastising guys like Anderson for not being able to let go of characters, or wanting them to be 'the way they remember'? You're being a real hippopotamus on this one, Dom. Don't think of this Amanda Waller as a character who's supposed to be the old one, think of her as a new character entirely! Why should she adhere to an old status quo? How is your wistful complaining here any different from, say, Anderson wanting the old Alan Scott back?

[andersonh1]

Who cares about likability?

Most of us, I imagine. Personally, I'm not going to invest time and money into characters I don't like, with rare exceptions.

[Dominic]

My complaint here is that Waller was simply unique. And, as I said, she undermined stereotypes about how every woman in comics is either a buxom superwench or a frail matron. If somebody was really harping on how comics handled women characters, we could always fall back on "the Wall" to deflate their case for us. Waller was clearly not modelled on a model. She was not frail or at all motherly. That is gone now.

The current Amanda Waller is not a bad character. But, she does not even begin to fill the role of the old "Wall". DC may well rectify that in some way, either "upgrading" the current Waller or introducing a similar character. But, right now, something is missing.

Alan Scott was one of a half dozen Green Lanterns. He was a character with a long history. But, his history stretched back to the 1940s, and included volumes of forgettable stories. It was time to move on. Waller, on the other hand, was unique on more than one level, making her more useful to keep around.

Most of us, I imagine. Personally, I'm not going to invest time and money into characters I don't like, with rare exceptions.

By that standard, new Waller is superior to the old Wall. New Waller is actually really nice. She has a hard side, but it is an obvious facade. In contrast, the old Wall was a well and truly a hard ass.



Dom
-would also point out that this is not a wholesale complaint about the New 52, or even "Team 7" as a singular book.

[andersonh1]

My complaint here is that Waller was simply unique. And, as I said, she undermined stereotypes about how every woman in comics is either a buxom superwench or a frail matron. If somebody was really harping on how comics handled women characters, we could always fall back on "the Wall" to deflate their case for us. Waller was clearly not modelled on a model. She was not frail or at all motherly. That is gone now.

The current Amanda Waller is not a bad character. But, she does not even begin to fill the role of the old "Wall". DC may well rectify that in some way, either "upgrading" the current Waller or introducing a similar character. But, right now, something is missing.

I agree. She's lost the attributes that made her unique, and made her what she was. Like so many other new 52 characters I could name.

Alan Scott was one of a half dozen Green Lanterns. He was a character with a long history. But, his history stretched back to the 1940s, and included volumes of forgettable stories. It was time to move on.

That's a matter of opinion. It didn't help that the character hasn't had a solo series (bar a feature in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly) since the 40s or 50s, and has always been in a team book ever since, struggling for focus. I found that fact that he was old and had decades of experience made him unique, along with the other old JSA characters. He had a history and perspective that most comic characters don't. He had adult children, leading to some interesting storylines that, again, almost no other comic characters could have. To me, they've all lost what made them special and distinctive. Just like Amanda Waller.

[Dominic]

I would agree that Scott's longevity, on and off the page, was a point in his favour. But, it was off-set by the fact that he had been de-aged so many times when he simply should have died from old age long ago.


Dom