TF Views

And hopefully everyone at DC and elsewhere will step up their game.

So, is that a tacit admission by Simone that DC has been half-assing it before "Flash Point"?

It would help if individual issues went back to shittier paper, too. Floppies are disposable; they're not long-term investments.

What do you mean, shittier paper? They are not exactly using high end stock now.

If they drop the quality of the paper too much, I will just give up on single issues. If they drop the quality of compilations, I am out.

Bundling comics, (as manga does), only works if people are willing to pay for (and spend space storing) comics they do not want to get the comics they do want.

Of coure, anthology comics do not tend to do well in the US. Anybody remember "Marvel Comics Presents"?

Of course, we also know that the big two, (and likely IDW), would game the system. I can see "Birds of Prey" bouncing between the street level anthology (with the bat-books) and the sci-fi or team anthologies (owing to the characters's ties to the Justice League or Green Lantern).

I think comics have simply gotten too expensive. They aren't a cheap hobby any more.

To be fair, they were never "cheap". Remember, that dollar we used to spend on comics would buy a hell of a lot more back in the day.



And, this week, I wonder why I bother....

-Transformers #26: I will review this later.

-GI Joe Cobra #5: Ain't read it yet. Maybe it will buck this week's trend.


-Ultimate Spiderman #1:
And....everybody is talking about it I guess. It was poly-bagged, so you know it is important. I am still looking for a scented-chromium-holofoil cover.

Okay, joking aside, this is the first issue of the Miles Morales Spiderman. The letters column is generally balanced between positive and negative letters, with most of the negative trending towards "we want Peter Parker bawwww" in tone.

The issue itself shows the origin of the new Spiderman. He gets bitten by a spider and his power set includes invisibility. Bendis is setting up a different set of circumstances for the new Spiderman. He had both parents and a ne'er-do-well uncle looking out for him. (Said irresponsible uncle is responsible for the spider bite.) Luck and chance are the themes for the first arc. They might play out for a bit longer though.

It is neither a great nor a terrible start. But it is a start, and I am in, if only for a bit.
Grade: B


New Avengers #16 and general "Fear Itself" notes:
Bendis opens and closes this issue with the same "documentary interviews" that he has been using in recent issues. Apparently, DareDevil is on the team now. I have no idea how long this will last. But, it probably has something to do with the "Daredevil" title getting a reboot.

There is a sequence featuring the destruction of Avengers Tower that is bothersome for two reasons. At a basic level, it raises the question of how long before the whole team is back in the mansion. As it stands now, without the tower, the Avengers are one step closer to pre-Bendis spec. In other words, things are going back to "just how they were in the 80s".

The other problem with the destruction of Avengers Tower is that it pretty clearly, (and we can assume intentionally), evoked the destruction of the WTC 10 years ago. This would be crass enough, but doing so more or less at the 10th anniversary only makes it harder to stomach. I am not sure if Bendis or Marvel Editorial is to blame. Either way, I am seriously considering dropping this book. (Of course, all of the cape/mask books that I read are Bendis writing for Marvel.)

Apparently, Bucky died either in "Fear Itself" or a crossover. Wow. Bucky is dead....and Steve Rogers is going to be Captain America again. (And, they are doing this at the tail end of the movie's run. Good work Marvel.) Remember the big deal with Bucky took over for Steve? Yeah, that lasted. Odin decided he wants to help humanity again over in "Iron Man". And, some other stuff happens.

Grade (New Avengers only): C/D



Dom
-not a good week.

I think Bucky was killed in "Fear Itself". I've been reading Daredevil and Captain America since both series restarted, and they're not bad. Daredevil is particularly enjoyable, in my opinion. But Bucky hasn't really been mentioned more than once in Captain America, so maybe they jsut deal with the reaction to his death in the Fear Itself series. I don't know.

andersonh1 wrote: maybe they jsut deal with the reaction to his death in the Fear Itself series. I don't know.

From what I understand, Cap had a pretty understated and subtle reaction to Bucky's death in Fear Itself, before saying "Okay, we have things to do." Which, to me, I think that's fair. It's effectively still the middle of wartime, Cap's thinking more "react to this later. For now, carry on soldier". I think there's to be a Fear Itself Epilogue written by Brubaker that deals with Cap mourning Buck more thoroughly. I was sort of surprised that it hasn't been brought up in Captain America, especially what with the first issue opening at a funeral and all.

Sparky Prime wrote: I'm starting to wonder how they will wrap things up seeing as they're trying to redeem Wanda by explaining her rampage as being possessed by a force of power she couldn't control. Which sounds somewhat familiar...

Oh, man, and she's already got a color-based codename! Time for different-colored witches!

Daredevil #4
The changeover in artists from last issue to this isn’t very jarring at all, thankfully. The title page as a mockup of “The Daily Bugle” continues to be a great way to recap the previous issue. And Mark Waid continues to take Daredevil’s “Man without fear” nickname very literally as the first few pages show him retrieving a flash drive from the lion’s cage at the Bronx Zoo and escaping to tell the tale, all with a smile on his face and a glib attitude. It continues to be Matt Murdock’s positive attitude towards life and the dangers he faces that make this book enjoyable to read.

And the legal side of Murdock’s life continues to be important as his ongoing trouble practicing law leads to a new approach where he and Foggy help down and out clients defend themselves in court, with some success. The aforementioned flash drive is a crucial piece of evidence in one such trial. The issue ends with the story of a young blind man who was mysteriously fired for identifying to Latverians in his office, which seems to be information that someone is willing to kill for judging by the final page. I’m no expert on the Marvel universe by any means, but I think that’s where Doctor Doom is from, so perhaps he’ll be making an appearance at some point? Who can say?

andersonh1 wrote: I’m no expert on the Marvel universe by any means, but I think that’s where Doctor Doom is from, so perhaps he’ll be making an appearance at some point? Who can say?

It's even better than that. Latveria is the country that Doom's the absolute ruler of. Part of why I like Doctor Doom as much as I do, because he has his own damn country. The heroes of the MU can stop Doom from taking over the world, but they can't stop him from owning a piece of it.

138 Scourge wrote:Oh, man, and she's already got a color-based codename! Time for different-colored witches!

It gets better. At the end of the issue, Doom ends up with the "Life Force" power and he gets white clothes. Not even joking.

Marvel is looking less appealling every day...


So, anybody read "Demon Knights" or "OMAC" from DC?


Dom
-not quite joking....

I hear good things about, primarily, Demon Knight and Animal Man.

Dominic wrote: So, anybody read "Demon Knights" or "OMAC" from DC?

OMAC is good stuff. On the one hand, it's all about just doing a straight-up Kirby riff, but hell, if you're gonna riff, riff on the best. And besides, Keith Giffen's artwork is amazing. I liked it. Haven't read Demon Knights yet, though. I've heard good things, and I like the Demon and I like Paul Cornell, so I could be convinced.

Dominic wrote:Marvel is looking less appealling every day...

You're not reading the right Marvel stuff. Daredevil, Captain America, Cap & Bucky, Venom, and Amazing Spider-Man are top of the line good comics.

Sparky Prime wrote:

138 Scourge wrote:Oh, man, and she's already got a color-based codename! Time for different-colored witches!

It gets better. At the end of the issue, Doom ends up with the "Life Force" power and he gets white clothes. Not even joking.

Ah! I've seen Doom's white suit in the FF comics. Wondered what was up with that. Hey, Selene the Black Queen already recruited dead mutants into an army to attack their former friends.

138 Scourge wrote:

Dominic wrote:Marvel is looking less appealling every day...

You're not reading the right Marvel stuff. Daredevil, Captain America, Cap & Bucky, Venom, and Amazing Spider-Man are top of the line good comics.

Agreed, at least when it comes to the two I'm reading, Daredevil and Captain America. They're good enough to keep a formerly confirmed DC-only reader like myself interested and forking over the cash every month.