TF Views

Dominic wrote:Wait, IDW published what now?

Yeah, it somehow makes the concept of SuicideGirls even *more* laughable. Bless.

That'll teach me to research a comic studio before investing in their work.

I am just going to assume that "Grant" is not "Alan Grant".

But, yeah, I never said that IDW consistently pitched high. Still, their TF stuff is good, and that is what I am buying.

Dom
-went through a "boycott Marvel because of the Heroes World Debacle " phase back in the 90s.

138 Scourge wrote:

Dominic wrote:Valiant did some legit good stuff. Jim "touch of death" Shooter arguably killed them simply for being on their payroll.

No sir. The Shooter-era Valiant stuff was the good stuff.

I think Dom means Shooter's reputation. A lot of people hate him. Marvel made him look like the bad guy a lot. (Not guys like Stan Lee. Guys like 'the people who controlled the money.' There's lots of stories on Shooter's blog. Read it sometime, it's wonderful.)

Shooter also has a reputation for destroying everything he touches. It is like a curse. If he takes care of your goldfish, that goldfish is going to die because Shooter touched the bowl.

If Shooter comes over your house for dinner, your house is burning down because Shooter is sitting at your table. He does not want to burn your house down. But, it is happening because he is Jim Shooter...and he is cursed.

Frankly, I am suprised that the comics industry has survived as long as it has with him being part of it.

To hear Shooter tell it, this isn't really his fault. It's more like people will find out Shooter is at your house, and burn your house down because there's a chance Shooter will die in the fire.

And....

X-Men 260.1 and 261:
It has been over 15 years since I have last bought an "X-Men" comic, and closer to 20 if we discount Mark Waid's run on that book in the mid to late 90s. But, Gage has impressed me enough in the past that seeing his name on a ".1" issue was enough to get me to shell out money. (It also helped that not much came out this week, and that I am keeping pace on my back-log.)
The ".1" issue does what a ".1" is intended to do, specifically give readers an overview of the book's status quo, concept and/or direction. The high concept here is that the team has split, with half of the team teaching young mutants how to fight and the cast of this book focusing on teaching young mutants how to live in civilization. The plot of the zero issue is weak, and is not especially well handled. But, the point is to show the high concept of the book more than anything else. And, Gage does that. Issue 261 is better, if a bit bogged down in set-up.

I will say one thing for "X-Men". It is not the same book it was when I dropped it all those years back. There are new members of the team, and the series itself has a new direction. On the other hand, I have not way of knowing how many reboots and resets there have been in that time, nor do I have any way of knowing how many of the new characters will stick around and how many old characters will stay dead.

One seriously problematic element of both issues is the art style. Gambit was, by my guess ~30 when he first appeared ~20 years ago. That means that he has been around around for about 7 years of comic time. (This is a rough guess on the conversion of real to comic years. But, it feels about right.) That would put Gamit in his mid to late 30s. (It should also be noted that Gambit has not had an easy life, so he would not have aged well.) Similarly, Iceman was in HS 15 years ago, which would make him about 30 now. Rachel Grey would be in her mid 20s at least, and (similar to Gambit) aged by the way she had lived the first 20 years or so of her life.

However, they all look to be at least 10 years my junior, only a few years older than Sam and Paige Gunthrie (Cannonball and Husk).

Comic characters do not tend to age consistently. But, the art and character ages really should be more clear in a book where one of the high concepts is training the next generation of kids.

Grade: B/C Not a bad read over-all. And, the changed status quo is worth a few points. But, this is not good enough for me to commit to another run of comics. The art does little to tempt me otherwise.


Dom
-not sure that Magneto and Cyclops are totally wrong.

Aquaman #5
What would Aquaman do if he were lost in the desert? Geoff Johns apparently continues to write plots based on jokes about Aquaman, but he does make something interesting out of them. In this case, the initial four issue storyline leads into the current "who sank Atlantis" plot that begins this issue. I had expected it to have nothing to do with the Trench, but the story does progress because of the events surrounding the Trench and its inhabitants. It's another strong issue, even if the flashback method of storytelling isn't as effective as I'd like.

Superman #2
I wasn't going to buy the new Superman series, and I'm still on the fence about it. The purchase was one of those "the issue is still on the shelf but it won't be next month" type of decisions. I keep going back and forth about the Flash for the same reason. In any case, I'm still not too happy with the new costume or the grimmer, more distant Superman. And are we or are we not in the 21st century? Why do writers keep falling back on the earth/air/fire/water enemies? Issue 1 had the fire monster and now issue 2 has the air monster, which even Superman can't see until he figures out a way to locate it. Perez still packs a lot of dialogue into the issue, which is welcome, but the story is underwhelming.

Justice League #5
I haven't seen a lot of Jim Lee's art in the past, but I have to admit that I really like it. I have a feeling that this story will have a rushed conclusion next month, given where things stand now, but we'll have to see. Not all of the characters get much to do, Cyborg and Wonder Woman in particular. The Flash, Batman and Green Lantern have the best scenes, with Hal finally showing some of his old characterization in that he simply won't quit. I'm enjoying this series, even if it's light on substance and paced very slowly.

Green Lantern #5
Hal and Sinestro go round two with the Sinestro Corps now that they have backup from the Korugarians and successfully shut down the Yellow Central Battery, which also puts the Sinestro Corps members into a coma on the planet. However, Sinestro explains there are still active Sinestro Corps members out there, which Sinestro vows to hunt down. And he double crosses Hal. Sinestro also seems to be working into the plans of the Guardians, who talk about the next step in their next army.

Just to note here, the solicitation for New Guardians #8 mentions Arkillo trying to get a new type of Yellow Power ring, which probably means the Sinestro Corps will continue despite the loss of their Central Power Battery and new rings that Sinestro can't manipulate.

Red Lanterns #5
Despite the cover saying this will be "The battle to lead the Red Lanterns", there is no such conflict in this issue. Atrocitus confronts Bleez about the disappearance of Krona's body, but there really aren't any answers given there either. Instead we see the 3 Red Lanterns thrown into the Blood Ocean have their intellect restored while Atrocitus. And the first human Red Lantern is chosen.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #5
The Lanterns split up into groups of two to explore the solar system sized ship, finding the large orbs contain whole planets. What Sayd said about it being from another universe seems to be confirmed as two of the planets are identified as Okaara and Tamaran. And Kyle finds out Larfleeze has had dealings with this thing before as the inhabitants identity the Orange Lantern symbol as an enemy and call for Invictus to protect them. Nice to see this issue also ties into Red Lanterns, as Atrocitus is shown throwing Bleez into the blood ocean when she can't explain what happened to the Red ring coherently.

DC finally officially announced the Watchmen prequel comics. Here's the info:

•RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
•MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
•COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
•DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
•NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
•OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
•SILK SPECTRE(4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner
Each new issue that is released will feature a two-page back-up story called Curse of The Crimson Corsair that will be written by original series editor Len Wein and with art by original series colorist John Higgins.

I'll be honest, I'm down to read at least a few of these. Some I'll wait and see what everyone else is saying, but honestly there's no way I won't be at least morbidly interested. There's always the chance it'll be a trainwreck but I'm sure that these guys will treat the material with the respect it deserves. With Superman or Batman or The Flash or somebody, you can tell a shit story and kind of get away with it, because eighteen other Superman or Batman stories came out the same month, or are available in trades, or whatever, and in all likelihood your story will be rebooted or overwritten in the next decade anyway. Watchmen, though, is *it.* For years it was just That Comic and nothing else. It's got a reverence to it, I feel, and that's probably part of why they've waited so long to do this. (Or now that the hype from the movie has finally died down, they're looking for ways to get sales for the original book back up somehow. EITHER WAY.)

Onslaught Six wrote:DC finally officially announced the Watchmen prequel comics. Here's the info:

•RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
•MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
•COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
•DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
•NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
•OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
•SILK SPECTRE(4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner
Each new issue that is released will feature a two-page back-up story called Curse of The Crimson Corsair that will be written by original series editor Len Wein and with art by original series colorist John Higgins.

Hah! No way. I never figured that DC'd go through with it. Watchmen sequels (or prequels, jeez) always seemed like a ridiculous running joke, but not something that'd they'd ever go through with. That said, if I wasn't opposed to the whole idea I'd be down with Silk Spectre and Minutemen, because Darwyn Cooke does really nice work, and Amanda Connor's an amazing artist. But the rest...I can take or leave Azzarello, he's left me cold as often as he's impressed me. But man, JMS? That's gonna be rough.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and pass on this book, but I'll follow what's up online to satiate my morbid curiosity. And I won't refrain from taking some cheap shots at the whole concept since it just seems so damn laughably bad.