Comics are awesome.

[Dominic]

Tons of stuff is glossed over, which is pretty standard for this sort of sourcebook. The old comprehensive sourcebooks of the late 80s, or the comprehensive bibliographies of the early 90s are a thing of the past.

Current sourcebooks do not even necessarily list first/significant appearances for characters, and are often written in character. (This one has some *really* clumsy in-character writing from Captain America, who comes across as inarticulate boob. The sheer number of characters and real purpose of this sort of book balance out style quibbles though.)

Unless you want to be the first to get hints about upcoming "things", (many of which are pretty obvious), I would not recommend buying this as a primer. If nothing else, the amount of time it would take to read through all of the entries could be better put towards reading the actual comics, or summaries (if not simply hanging out at the comic shop and talking to people about the books).

[138 Scourge]

Okay, Jeff Parker bribed me to buy this book, and it totally worked. So, "Hulk" #25...

There's a lot for me to like about this issue. It's a good jumping-on point for people that, like myself, hadn't been following this title before. A new storyline kicks off, and it starts up FAST. Basically, the Intelligentsia, a group consisted of Marvel's brainiest villains, had a secret plan in case their efforts in "World War Hulks" didn't pan out. The "Scorched Earth" plan, in which they unleash every crazy destructive monster-related scheme that they'd previously tabled for being too destructive. So when it's things that guys like MODOK and Doctor Doom think are unnecessarily destructive, you know you've got something. In this issue, the threats are: Giant Sea Monster, and army of people turned into cyborg zombies by infected prosthetic limbs. Fast paced and not afraid to go with the high concept, I'm okay with this so far.

Then you've got the protagonist, who isn't the proper Hulk, but General Thunderbolt Ross, the Red Hulk. So no, I probably wouldn't have picked this up had I known it was the Red Hulk when I promised to buy it, but I figured that since I'm already committed, what the hell. But maybe it's just that I'm familiar with Ross from a loooooong time back, but I really don't mind seeing him as a Hulk. All these people (Ross, Betty, Rick) have been around the Hulk for so long, it's almost fitting that, as they say, Hulkamania ran wild. Anyway, Ross actually works as a character here, and his interactions with Bruce Banner are one of the more fun parts of this book, in my own opinion. Of course, the bit where Ross and Tony Stark have one of the most literal "Heroes misunderstand each other and fight" bits in recent memory, that's some good fun, too. Clearly, every super hero team needs a telepath.

And then, for your four bucks (yikes), you got a back up feature in which Rick "A-Bomb" Jones fights a bigass sea serpent. I wouldn't have minded a longer main story over this backup feature, and I'm not a hundred percent sure about Rick looking so much like the Creature from the Black Lagoon these days, but as a Marvel fan, I like Rick Jones. He's the Jimmy Olsen of the Marvel Universe, the guy that's been around all the heroes and craziness, and been affected by all of it at one time or another. Looked at that way, this "A-Bomb" incarnation is another phase he's going through, may as well enjoy it while it's happening.

Overall, I dig this thing. It looks good, it's a fun read, it gets right the hell down to business without sacrificing character moments. Marvel's got a lot of "Right Now" kinds of things going on with their books these days, where it's like...Okay, you know the basics of the character, right? But "Right now, the Punisher's a Frankenstein", or "Right now, Bucky's Captain America", or "Right Now, half the Hulk's supporting cast is also Hulks". These are things that won't last forever, most likely, but they've, for the most part, worked out better than I'd think. In conclusion, it's cool and I'm glad Parker bribed me on this one.

[Dominic]

And, this week leaves me unambiguously caught up on regular comics. (This of course ignores the many compilations sitting unread on the floor, and all of those regular books.)


Avengers #5:
This issue is largely "Bendis riffs on superheroes". I say "riffs on" rather than "writes" because this issue seems to be intended to showcase various genre cliches more than anything else. There is even a diagram that is pretty obviously inspired by Rip Hunter's chalk board in "Countdown". The story and art are hazy in places. This might be intentional, but it does not matter. There was more than one point where I was relying on familiarity with the genre, if not hte setting, to get through certain pages. For a title that is supposed to be new reader friendly, that sort of thing is a problem. (I am also unsure if blame lies with Bendis or Romita.)

Continuity note: Tony Stark has not had a drink in the last 5 years...unless he was lying, which drunks tend to do.

The text back-up loses a bit of focus, with Bendis writing some weak "from the villains perspective" bits.

Grade: C This is not the issue to start reading "Avengers".


Dom
-needs a nap.






--
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[Shockwave]

Comics haul: I usually just go in, get what's been stashed for me and leave (aside from extensive conversations with the owner). But this month I decided to tour the wall and see what else I might have been missing. And here we go:

Serenity one shot: It was a ulogy for the Wash character and very well written. By Joss Whedon so I'm sure that had something to do with it. It was like reading an episode of the show.

Supergirl 55: I don't usually read DC comics but this one had a Bizarro Supergirl on the cover and I'm a sucker for opposite type villains.

God of War: Yes, you read that right, there's actually a comic based on the game. It's written in a way that I could very easily imagine playing it as levels of one of the games, but the art is like the poster for the movie 300. Works well on a poster but not so well in a comic.

Smurfs hardcovers: I cannot explain what my fixation with Smurfs is other than to say that I find Smurfdeath hilarious.

Transformers 11: Thoughts in that thread.

Transformers Drift 1 and 2: #2 page 20 top panel. WTH? Why does TFW get so much love? I mean I know we're a relatively small forum, but come on. Don't get me wrong, they're a pretty good site (for the most part. Anderson's a mod over there so can't complain too much right?) But I don't think they warrant being part of the official continuity.

Shockwave
- Is pretty sure this is the definition of fanwank.

[Onslaught Six]

TFW is arguably one of the largest fan-sites out there. And they're hardly the first place to get a shoutout--the Allspark got one in DW and IDW used text from the TFWiki on AHM #15's alt cover. (Was it fifteen? The Perceptor one.)

[andersonh1]

Transformers Drift 1 and 2: #2 page 20 top panel. WTH? Why does TFW get so much love? I mean I know we're a relatively small forum, but come on. Don't get me wrong, they're a pretty good site (for the most part. Anderson's a mod over there so can't complain too much right?) But I don't think they warrant being part of the official continuity.

All sorts of fan culture gets a shout out from time to time. Remember the Allspark forum poster whose fan character got a cameo as a dead Transformer in one of the War Within series? Or Monzo (I think) on Universe Onslaught? Or Ben Yee's nickname getting a mention by Waspinator on Beast Wars? This is just a part of that same trend. Just a shout-out to a portion of the fandom that the artist or writers feels like mentioning.

I like it. I think it's harmless, and I think it shows that the fans and some of the pros are all a part of the same fan-subculture, enjoying the same hobby. We read their work, they visit the fan sites and interact and comment, just like the rest of us.

[Shockwave]

I don't remember any of that. Please elaborate. Monzo was the name of one of the Nebulan Headmasters so I just assumed it was a referrence to that (although I am puzzled as to why it would be placed on Onslaught).

[andersonh1]

I don't remember any of that. Please elaborate. Monzo was the name of one of the Nebulan Headmasters so I just assumed it was a referrence to that (although I am puzzled as to why it would be placed on Onslaught).

The fan character was Defunct, a character created by Beamer from the Allspark boards. He turned up dead in one panel of The Age of Wrath issue 1.

Ben Yee gets a shoutout as "Wonko the Sane" from the Beast Wars episode where Rhinox is reprogrammed into a Predacon. Waspinator gets smacked on the head and goes around spouting nonsense, and one of the things he does is call himself Wonko the Sane.

And according to the TFwiki: ""MONZO 12782" is tampographed onto the front of the vehicle mode on both versions, a reference by Hasbro to the ever-helpful fan Monzo and his birthdate, December 7, 1982, or 12-7-82. "

[Shockwave]

I thought Yee started using that after BW, he started using it before? And they worked that into the show? Yikes. I kind of liked that scene when I thought it was the other way around, but now knowing that...

Shockwave
-Is now beginning to see what Dom is talking about with BW.

[Onslaught Six]

Monzo gets another shoutout on somebody or other's bio card. To be fair, I think Monzo helps them quite a bit--I know he runs some Obscure Transformers Newsletter and he actually gives that to Hasbro every so often. I think Walky coloured the cover of one of them, which featured Straxus, and the colouring was actually some weird hybrid of his multiple colour schemes he's never actually appeared in. And Hasbro used that colouring as the basis for the toy. (Not that I mind--it actually does look better than either deco alone.)

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Fandom#References

Here's a pretty damn comprehensive list of these kind of things, but it's still missing a few.