TF Views

Frank Quietly on Pax Americana: http://www.newsarama.com/22784-frank-qu ... d-you.html

Pax Americana annotations from Multiversity Comics (really): http://multiversitycomics.com/annotatio ... h-we-burn/

JediTricks wrote:Batman '66 vs The Green Hornet #5 - Anderson I believe it was said of #6 that this felt like a series which should have ended 2 issues prior, I'd echo that for #5, this series is now totally into repetition mode and nothing is truly happening, it's just moving pieces back and forth on a chessboard.

This was a series that I wanted to like, and do like for the most part, despite the flaws. But the fact is, they ran out of plot before they ran out of issues. We needed some further twist or complication or something, but it never came. Or more humor might have helped make up for the repetition, but it seemed like the last issue in particular got into exposition mode to the point that there wasn't time for anything else.

It was a fun series, but it should have been better than it was.

Finally got around to...

Batman '66 #16 - Egghead Unleashed - interesting issue, fun to watch Egghead become too advanced for his own good. Batman and Robin being turned into Cavemen was a tad stretched thin, but the overall read was enjoyable.

TF Primacy #3 - we don't talk about this book for some reason, and that reason is that it's exceptionally hard to figure out because it's so dark, and this issue was just a slugfest.

IDW is not even clear where the Dille/Metzen stuff goes. (My vote is in the trash can.)

Not even sure where demand for this book is coming from. Dille and Metzen are strictly retro (in style and quality) which does not work with Ramondelli's art. It beats Scioli, but that is a low bar.

Morrison and Quietly discuss Pax Americana: http://shelf-life.ew.com/2014/11/17/mor ... americana/

I suppose it’s about America and specifically about America’s self-image as the world’s policeman. It tries to make a mind-devouring narrative Mobius strip out of the complicated, contradictory idea of using violence to enforce “peace.”

On a narrower wavelength, it might also cast a jaded eye on how lessons learned from the leftist, deconstructionist “realistic” superhero stories of the 1980s were assimilated and re-tooled to create post-9/11 Marvel Studios-style “realistic” super-soldiers and champions of the Military/Industrial complex.

Otherwise, it tells the Twilight Zone-ish story of a man’s life in a series of backward jumps through time—from his assassination as U.S. President on the first page to the traumatic boyhood event on the last page that explains everything we’ve just read in the 38 pages in between. It’s set on Earth-4 of the Multiverse of alternate worlds and it’s a kind of political-philosophical-thriller thing featuring the superheroes DC acquired from Charlton Comics back in 1983. The Charlton originals helped inspire the protagonists of “Watchmen,” of course, so we thought it would serve symmetry to put Captain Atom, the Blue Beetle, Nightshade, and the Question into a highly formal, “Watchmen”-style deconstructionist murder mystery story they can call their own!

Convergence week four: http://www.newsarama.com/22861-dc-s-con ... -baby.html

Pre-Crisis? JSA? Seven Soldiers of Victory? Captain Marvel (and so soon after Multiversity gives us classic Captain Marvel)? Scribbly?!? I can see myself buying every one of these. I hope they do the characters justice.

None of those really grab me.

Gonna wait for DC to sort out their long term plans before I start on more of their books.

Justice League 3000 #12
Okay, I gave this book a shot. To be fair, it has been improved by the addition of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, and this is the best of the four issues that I’ve read. But it’s still not very good. I’m not sure how Giffen and DeMatteis can mess up a simple story of these two guys wandering around the prison planet that is the former Earth, engaging in banter and getting into trouble in a very classic JLI manner. And yet they manage to do just that. There’s just enough of a mixed storytelling tone to make the whole issue feel “off” and confused. For every bit of genuine humor, there’s some sordid sight or character that comes along to kill the mood. There is some fun meta commentary here and there about the current state of DC’s storytelling trends, and I wonder if the fat guy in the Blue Beetle costume is poking fun at Doc Ock, but in the end I’m pretty close to calling it quits on this book. It’s one of those middle of the road books that I don’t really dislike, but I can’t quite get enthused enough about to keep buying either.

Green Lantern #37
This is the only Green Lantern title I’m reading, and so I have to pick up on what’s been going on elsewhere in the Godhead crossover based on what I read here. And Vendetti does a decent job of making it clear that a ton of Lanterns from various corps have been captured, and that the New Gods can neutralize the energy of their rings, as well as neutralizing Parallax (who looks different than I remember). The scene with John Stewart and Sinestro going at each other verbally was enjoyable. I think Vendetti misfires quite a bit with his characterization of jolly old Black Hand though. If nothing else, the issue does show that Black Hand’s power is apparently a threat to the New Gods, since he is able to either kill or otherwise defeat several of the Guard before getting distracted by the Source Wall. And there continues to be some fairly good character work for Hal. Given the situation, it’s hard to see exactly how he’s going to get out of the cliffhanger ending, unless he can get Black Hand engaged in the fight again. Another good issue.

Batman ’66 #17
I’m not sure what happened to the art this issue. I thought the colors were very murky and poor, and the pencils weren’t all that good either. But the story was fun as, once again, King Tut makes an appearance in Gotham. This time he’s discovered some ancient Egyptian formula that essentially turns the citizens of Gotham into zombies who will obey his every command. So he’s riding around town, laughing maniacally and spraying everyone with the gas that converts them. Batman and Robin get *gasp* buried alive! But dig themselves out when the zombies go away. And Batman uses his Bat-Reference guide to ancient Egypt to learn that the stuff Tut is using only works at night. As soon as the sun comes up, everyone’s back to normal.

It’s a zombie apocalypse story filtered through the lens of the Adam West Batman series, and as such it’s silly and fun rather than grotesque and violent. Chief O’Hara continues to speak in his Irish brogue even as a zombie, and Batman amusingly thinks that being dispatched by the good citizens of Gotham is the worst possible death he can imagine.

andersonh1 wrote:Batman ’66 #17
I’m not sure what happened to the art this issue. I thought the colors were very murky and poor, and the pencils weren’t all that good either. But the story was fun as, once again, King Tut makes an appearance in Gotham. This time he’s discovered some ancient Egyptian formula that essentially turns the citizens of Gotham into zombies who will obey his every command. So he’s riding around town, laughing maniacally and spraying everyone with the gas that converts them. Batman and Robin get *gasp* buried alive! But dig themselves out when the zombies go away. And Batman uses his Bat-Reference guide to ancient Egypt to learn that the stuff Tut is using only works at night. As soon as the sun comes up, everyone’s back to normal.

It’s a zombie apocalypse story filtered through the lens of the Adam West Batman series, and as such it’s silly and fun rather than grotesque and violent. Chief O’Hara continues to speak in his Irish brogue even as a zombie, and Batman amusingly thinks that being dispatched by the good citizens of Gotham is the worst possible death he can imagine.

Seriously, I have no excuse for not reading this series. How's the 'continuity', can you just jump in with any issue? I might need to start. And check out the trades.

BWprowl wrote:Seriously, I have no excuse for not reading this series. How's the 'continuity', can you just jump in with any issue? I might need to start. And check out the trades.

Continuity is minimal to non-existent. There are occasional references to past events, but 99% of every issue has been self-contained so far.