Comics are awesome.

[andersonh1]

Wouldn't the GL Corps rule for this sort of thing be "keep it on your own planet, and we are cool"?

After all, they generally leave Thanagarians to plunder and abuse each-other.

Dom

They often do, but I would think Earth would be the exception, since it's the center of the multiverse. And the GLC did lose three members there in this storyline... you'd think they would at least want to investigate and know what happened.

[Dominic]

I suppose it depends on the threshold for action. If the changes to Earth do not effect the multiverse, there is no reason to panic. Attrition among Lanterns looks to be pretty high in other stories. So even if Hal, Guy, John, Kyle and Alan were all corps members in the new timeline, the Guardians might just decide to elect a Lantern from some other planet.

Dom
-after all, not everything is Oa's problem.

[andersonh1]

There's that, and then there's the fact that the story is obviously leading towards having the depowered heroes save the day rather than be rescued from the outside by the Corps. Which is fine, and it's what I'd expect, but it just seems like the Corps did give up very easily. At least make it look like they made an effort first.

[138 Scourge]

Am I the only one bothered by the "Earth=Center of the Muliverse" thing? Not like intensely bothered or anything, but more "That doesn't seem even close to right" sort of thing. For one thing, if it's the center of everything and it's where life started, why are it's inhabitants so retarded? Because you compare Earth's inhabitants and technology to the rest of the DCU's species, we are seriously taking the short bus. Maybe it's all the times we got wiped out by those crazy ass things in Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory?

But anyway, I went out and got FCBD comics:

Iron Man/Thor: Matt Fraction wrote it, John Romita Jr. drew it. So I liked it.

Iron Man/Nova: Probably my favorite book from the FCBD: Iron Man and Nova team up with Igor the shapeshifting baboon to stop the Red Ghost and his other Super-Apes. My girlfriend really enjoyed this one, too, which shows that she's kind of awesome.

Lady Gaga preview comic: Not as bad as I thought it'd be. This shows a guy bemoaning how popular music has lost the style and glamour of artists like Bowie, Queen, and the like, and then he discovers Lady Gaga. The artwork's okay, the scene of the dude dripping with sweat when he buys the CD were amusingly disgusting, and the scenes of dude becoming more and more obsessed are kind of hilarious. But the artist just plain cannot get Gaga's likeness right at all, which you'd think would be important for this project. This book also includes a clip from a Taylor Swift comic, which just makes me want a picture of Kanye West to past over those pages, and an S.E. Hinton story about a boy and his dog. It's no "Outsiders", I'll tell you that.

Spider-Man/Kraven: Grim Hunt: Some sort of preview for some stuff going on in the regular Spidey books. I really think FCBD books should be full stories, so whatever to this. Man, Kraven had him a lot of kids, apparently. Also, he and Uncle Ben are the only Marvel characters that've stayed dead.

Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom/Magnus: Robot Fighter: So I guess Valiant's all the way over, and Shooter got these two characters back? Huh. Anyway, both of these are okay, Solar fights super-strong white trash, and Magnus punches some robots. Seriously, I would love to write a Magnus book. Guy in a skirt just beating the crap out of robots in an awesome Jetsons-looking future? Brilliant.

G.I. Joe #155 1/2: Okay, but I wasn't blown away. Sort of fun.

Weathercraft and other Unusual Tales: Jim Woodring is pretty awesome. Creepy and very cool cartoons.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All: I'll learn to stop picking these up one day. Unfortunately, that wasn't yesterday.

[Sparky Prime]

Am I the only one bothered by the "Earth=Center of the Muliverse" thing? Not like intensely bothered or anything, but more "That doesn't seem even close to right" sort of thing. For one thing, if it's the center of everything and it's where life started, why are it's inhabitants so retarded? Because you compare Earth's inhabitants and technology to the rest of the DCU's species, we are seriously taking the short bus. Maybe it's all the times we got wiped out by those crazy ass things in Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory?

I really like the idea of Earth being the center of the DC multiverse personally. It makes sense given how Alex Luthor's experiment to create the perfect Earth was progressing. And this actually gives Earth a real reason for the intergalactic attention it seems to attract. Same goes for Earth being where Life started. And I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what that actually means. The Entity that is Life itself, began at what is now Earth, but that doesn't mean life existed on Earth yet. The life on Earth is extremely young on the universal scale, but the Entity that created Life has always been here is what they mean.

[Onslaught Six]

Lady Gaga preview comic: Not as bad as I thought it'd be. This shows a guy bemoaning how popular music has lost the style and glamour of artists like Bowie, Queen, and the like, and then he discovers Lady Gaga.

I am raging so hard on the inside.

Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom/Magnus: Robot Fighter: So I guess Valiant's all the way over, and Shooter got these two characters back? Huh. Anyway, both of these are okay, Solar fights super-strong white trash, and Magnus punches some robots. Seriously, I would love to write a Magnus book. Guy in a skirt just beating the crap out of robots in an awesome Jetsons-looking future? Brilliant.

No, it's more complicated than that. See, Valiant made its way halfway on reimagining characters from minor comics companies that had stopped really existing for decades like Gold Key Comics. This is where they got guys like Magnus, Solar and Turok. (Turok has his own storied history from before he became aquired by Gold Key themselves, actually, but.) This is basically similar to when DC acquired all the Charlton characters in the 80s and integrated them into the DC universe. When Valiant died off, the rights to the Gold Key characters reverted back to Random House. Random House got in contact with touch with Dark Horse to reprint some of the really old stuff, and then they announced the new Magnus/Solar books...written by Jim Shooter. Meaning that it all goes back to being written by the Valiant Writer Guy in the first place. So hey.

Funfact: Solar basically became a superhero and created the Valiant universe because he liked Gold Key Comics. This is kind of like Dr. Manhattan making the Watchmen universe because he liked Marvelman.

G.I. Joe #155 1/2: Okay, but I wasn't blown away. Sort of fun.

I hate how everyone is freaking out like they're "continuing the continuity for the first time." Bullshit! Devil's Due did that same thing for ten years. And it sucked then. And it'll suck now.

Am I the only one bothered by the "Earth=Center of the Muliverse" thing? Not like intensely bothered or anything, but more "That doesn't seem even close to right" sort of thing. For one thing, if it's the center of everything and it's where life started, why are it's inhabitants so retarded? Because you compare Earth's inhabitants and technology to the rest of the DCU's species, we are seriously taking the short bus. Maybe it's all the times we got wiped out by those crazy ass things in Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory?

I really like the idea of Earth being the center of the DC multiverse personally. It makes sense given how Alex Luthor's experiment to create the perfect Earth was progressing. And this actually gives Earth a real reason for the intergalactic attention it seems to attract. Same goes for Earth being where Life started. And I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what that actually means. The Entity that is Life itself, began at what is now Earth, but that doesn't mean life existed on Earth yet. The life on Earth is extremely young on the universal scale, but the Entity that created Life has always been here is what they mean.

DC is dumb. I miss Valiant.

[138 Scourge]

I do too, sometimes. I would love to see X-O Manowar make a comeback. Hell, I'd love to write an X-O Manowar book.

[Dominic]

Am I the only one bothered by the "Earth=Center of the Muliverse" thing?

The "Eurocentric Universe" is a *bad* narrative cliche, especially in comics and cartoons. But, Sparky is right in pointing out that post IC, there is contextual justification for it, at least in DC.

Lady Gaga preview comic:

I am going to review this one shortly. But, right now, this needs to be said: "LADY GAGA PRESENTS!"

(Well, somebody had to say it.)

Spider-Man/Kraven: Grim Hunt: Some sort of preview for some stuff going on in the regular Spidey books. I really think FCBD books should be full stories, so whatever to this. Man, Kraven had him a lot of kids, apparently. Also, he and Uncle Ben are the only Marvel characters that've stayed dead.

I agree that FCBD books should actually be full comics. But, this is not a FCBD book. (Most stores were putting it on the FCBD table though.)

Captain Mar-Vell has also stayed dead. Kraven's origin needs to be updated. The Bolshevik references were kind of stale in the 60s.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All: I'll learn to stop picking these up one day. Unfortunately, that wasn't yesterday.

Why? The bongo specials are great.

I hate how everyone is freaking out like they're "continuing the continuity for the first time." Bullshit! Devil's Due did that same thing for ten years. And it sucked then. And it'll suck now.

Contrary to popular belief and fan-bitching, the DDP run was actually pretty good. IDW is having many of the same problems with handling a brand that is dated.

I will post in more detail about this, but overall, this is as good a fix as the franchise could hope for. (I am not sure of the wisdom of offering this as a FCBD book, as existing fans are likely to keep these out of hands of kids and newer fans. But, a case could be made in favor of using new content of FCBD as well.)


Dom
-behind on reviews.

[Dominic]

Okay, two reviews:

Lady Gaga/The Puppy Sister (Blue Water Comics):
I can see the appeal of flip-books for smaller publishers. Properly done, they economize the cost and effort inherent to FCBD. But....this one is an odd duck. On one side, we have the generally distressing imagery of Lady Gaga. On the other, we have the near pastoral of "The Puppy Sister". The Lady Gaga story is a preview for an upcoming bio-comic. A year ago, I would have thought the bio-genre to be a passing thing, spawned largely by Obama showing up so much in comics. But, some prublishers are trying make a thing of it. There look to be some clever stylistic bits in the Lady Gaga story. But, the story itself is incomplete, even if the cut off point is a natural break. "The Puppy Sister" is also a preview, with a less natural break. There is also a short Taylor Swift story that looks to be more or less complete, if a bit bland.
Grade: D This is less a comic than a preview book. Preview books are available at many times during the year, not just on FCBD.


GI Joe #155.5: Larry Hama earned himself a spot on my "no-read" list following his crass references to the 2001 attacks in "The Mission that Never Was". The fact that Hama is quoted in the back of this issue as saying that "GI Joe" takes place outside of the real world only makes the faux-relevance of a 2001 reference more irksome. Of course, FCBD comics are graded on a different scale. And, by that scale, this book earns an "A". This is effectively a zero issue for IDW's re-launch of the original Marvel series. Andy Schmidt's introduction comes out and says that the upcoming continuation series is intended to split the difference between old and new, giving old fans the old characters they want while letting DDP's main book continue without 25+ years of baggage. (Schmidt's introduction also manages to ignore the DDP run of "GI Joe" along with every other iteration of the franchise since 1994. To read Schmidt's intro, one would think that IDW was the only license holder after Sunbow and Marvel.) This is probably as good a fix as any for "GI Joe", a franchise which is often hobbled by attempts to pander to an increasingly back-ward looking fanbase. This book might have been wasted on FCBD though, as most copies are likely to be taken up by collectors, rather than the new readers FCBD is supposed to bring in.
Grade: A/B I will not be picking up the relaunch series, owing to my aversion to Larry Hama's writing. But, this book is a good effort IDW to publicize the brand and their handling of it.


Dom
-not planning to write this much about every FCBD book.

[138 Scourge]

Lady Gaga preview comic:

I am going to review this one shortly. But, right now, this needs to be said: "LADY GAGA PRESENTS!"

I'd buy it. This is another book that I'd love to write, because I just straight-up think they're doing it wrong. Although I do kind of like the approach of using a reluctant fan as the central character. Anyway, the right way to do this book? Make it a cross between her videos and the old Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D. comics. Also, use various costumes she's adopted as specialized uniforms for whatever situation. Go completely nuts, it would be awesome.

Kraven's origin needs to be updated. The Bolshevik references were kind of stale in the 60s.

Nah, it's fine. He's got the magic jungle voodoo that keeps him from aging. Look, it's cheap, but it's something. The Black Widow's tied into all of that, too, it doesn't seem to be a problem for her. Besides, Kraven's dead anyway, the only way that him being too old would ever really matter would be if he shows up in one of the "Marvel Adventures" or "Ultimate" books, in which case he'd be automatically updated anyway.

Why? The bongo specials are great.

Some of 'em have been all right, but the last couple years I've just not enjoyed the FCBD specials from 'em.

Contrary to popular belief and fan-bitching, the DDP run was actually pretty good. IDW is having many of the same problems with handling a brand that is dated.

I can back you up on this one. I've read some of the DDP stuff, and have enjoyed it thoroughly.