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Post by spoon on Dec 5, 2017 23:58:03 GMT -5
Let's say I wanted to pick a costume from the villainous phase of the career of a character that has been both a hero and a villain. If a costume debuted when they were a villain, but was based off of/modified from a similar costume they wore a hero, does that still count? It depends on how significant the modifications are but theoretically yes, that would still count. Cei-U! I summon the wiggle room! What if the modification is just the color scheme?
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Post by spoon on Dec 5, 2017 22:52:16 GMT -5
Let's say I wanted to pick a costume from the villainous phase of the career of a character that has been both a hero and a villain. If a costume debuted when they were a villain, but was based off of/modified from a similar costume they wore a hero, does that still count?
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Post by spoon on Dec 2, 2017 19:47:41 GMT -5
If you'd told 10 year old Slam that they'd be making a Justice League movie and I'd have zero interest in it, I'm sure he'd have been shocked. But I have less than zero interest in this. I'm almost in the same situation, but I probably have enough interest to check Justice League out when Netflix has it on DVD. Since The Dark Knight, the only DC movies I've seen in a movie theater have been Wonder Woman and The Lego Batman Movie. I have yet to see Man of Steel, because Henry Cavill's dour Superman seemed unlike the character. I rented Suicide Squad. There was some decent acting, but overall the movie was a mess. Somehow it was simultaneously too long and also edited down to remove whatever scenes it needed to make sense. I watched Batman vs. Superman because it was available on a long plane flight. It was as dumb as all the critics said. Ben Affleck is anti-charismatic. After Wonder Woman, I thought maybe I'd give Justice League a try. Although I find the praise of Wonder Woman as a potential Best Picture nominee ridiculously excessive, I enjoyed it. But when the Justice League trailers/commercials came out, they sapped my interest. It just looks like a flaccid movie, as if Warner Bros. is just making because they feel like they have to do. The characters who previously just had cameos don't seem that interesting. Cyborg's CGI looks like an eyesore; maybe try some practical effects for that. I don't find Affleck compelling at all. The movie looks like bleak Snyder-verse stuff, with a thin veneer of humor to try to adjust to the criticism of prior films.
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Post by spoon on Dec 1, 2017 21:07:52 GMT -5
It's pretty cool when I find out about a TPB that I never existed, which reprints material I'd like to read. Then, it sucks when I find out that the TPB is already out-of-print and only selling at way over the cover price. That's the case with The Incredible Hulk. I discovered that there are three TPBs (titled Pardoned, Regression, and Crossroads respectively), which reprint #269-313. I've read barely any Hulk comics from that period, so I'd like to read them. But I discover they're OOP and selling for prices like $45 or $75 or $90. The happy ending is that I found a copy of Regression as a Buy It Now on Ebay. There was also a Make An Offer, so I sought a discount of a few buck and got it for $20 including shipping.
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Post by spoon on Dec 1, 2017 20:55:34 GMT -5
Iron Fist #15 is almost like a lost issue of Claremont/Byrne X-Men, so it's definitely worth reading. Magik #1-4 might have a framing sequence or something that results in being placed as late as it is in your timeline, but it's really the previously untold story of what happened to Illyana between pages of Uncanny X-Men #160, so it might be interesting to read it there. I'd recommend reading the X-Men Annual that's part of the Evolutionary War rather than skipping it. It's got Neal Adams art. It works in some threads from the X-Men history of the Savage Land (some of which was established in Classic X-Men back-ups to the Byrne era visit to the Savage Land). Also, since the X-Men end up back at the Savage Land around #250 of the main title, it's a nice addition. It also has the revelation that Colossus is a father, right? (I think that the art is by Art Adams, though, not Neal. An understandable slip when it comes to the Savage Land and the X-Men!) Yes, I don't think Colossus's fatherhood is explicitly stated, but the hints are like a sledgehammer to the head. That's one of the two plotlines I'm thinking of that connect with Classic X-Men back-up stories, the other one being Storm's other-dimensional friend (whose name I don't remember). Yup. I meant Art Adams. I think seeing Neal mentioned at the end of message I was quoting made my brain go into auto-pilot, and type the wrong name. That's another Classic X-Men connection, as Art did early covers of Classic, including the one that had the Claremont/Bolton back-up about Piotr's relationship with Nereel.
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Post by spoon on Dec 1, 2017 20:30:28 GMT -5
Aaaand there was a Claremont/Byrne Havoc story in MTU 69-70, which I'd rate as fairly important - It's a Claremont/Byrne story that (in part) takes place on Muir isle and involves Moira McTaggert and Madrox. ' And Nightcrawler guests up in the Claremont/written MTU 89, which has Arcade as the villain. Iron Fist # 15 is Claremont/Byrne and guest-stars the X-men. You could throw in # 14 for the first Sabretooth as well. Maaaaybe the Mystique issues of Ms. Marvel? And the Neil Adams issues of the original series would be quite helpful for background: That was the model that Claremont was following in a lot of ways. Iron Fist #15 is almost like a lost issue of Claremont/Byrne X-Men, so it's definitely worth reading. Magik #1-4 might have a framing sequence or something that results in being placed as late as it is in your timeline, but it's really the previously untold story of what happened to Illyana between pages of Uncanny X-Men #160, so it might be interesting to read it there. I'd recommend reading the X-Men Annual that's part of the Evolutionary War rather than skipping it. It's got Neal Adams art. It works in some threads from the X-Men history of the Savage Land (some of which was established in Classic X-Men back-ups to the Byrne era visit to the Savage Land). Also, since the X-Men end up back at the Savage Land around #250 of the main title, it's a nice addition. Yes, the three X-books at the time (X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants) essentially had three independent plotlines during Fall of the Mutants, except for perhaps quick reference to the X-Men storyline (like a TV broadcast). The non-mutant titles in Fall of the Mutants basically all cross over with X-Factor, rather than X-Men or New Mutants.
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Post by spoon on Nov 26, 2017 17:58:50 GMT -5
I read the Iron Man: Stark Wars TPB from the Epic Collection. It reprints Iron Man #215-232 and Annual #9. The latter part of TPB is the Armor Wars storyline (also known as Stark Wars). Surprisingly, I liked the earlier part of the TPB better. I generally knew what the Armor Wars storyline was about, and I didn't find reading the storyline much more interesting than reading a synopsis of the storyline. The tension seems manufactured.
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Post by spoon on Nov 25, 2017 12:02:26 GMT -5
Overall, this was a very enjoyable and fun film. The relationships have already been established so just have at it and they did and it was great. From Thor/Banner to Thor/Loki, the actors were comfortable in their roles and let some amount of good drama shine through the comedic moments. The addition of Valkyrie was even good, the moment of her flashback of fighting Hela being one of the strongest dramatic moments of the film. Speaking of Hela, Blanchett owned this role and the screen. Yes, they messed with the mythology and her motivations were rather simplistic but she was manipulative, seductive and confident. Loved how her helm fit into her narrative. My only qualm, why not say that Odin banished her to Hel? Skurge was cool but I don't see the need for the accent. The fate of the Warriors Three was ignominious but at least Hogun was able to get some hits in battle. The expansion of Elba's role was great and long overdue. The wife brought this up afterward and I tend to agree but I didn't catch his name in the credits. So... {Spoiler: Click to show} was that Matt Damon playing Loki during the stage play when Thor first returned to Asgard? Yup, that cameo in the stage play was who you thought it was. That was really awesome.
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Post by spoon on Nov 15, 2017 20:07:09 GMT -5
It's nice to see the attention to detail. There's a thin vertical rainbow strip in the inner lining of the coat that goes with the rainbow on her top, and the blue socks match the pants.
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Post by spoon on Nov 8, 2017 19:59:18 GMT -5
I liked it quite a lot, though it's far from my favorite Marvel movie (or even my favorite Thor movie). The only things that bothered me were the absence of Sif (not even a mention), presumably because Jaime Alexander was tied up with her TV series, and the quick and ignominious deaths of the Warriors Three (Volstagg and Fandral didn't even get lines, for goodness sake!). Cei-U! I summon the capsule review! The second of your spoilers bugged the heck out of me as well. It seemed like that was done in suck a dismissively casual way, like they were worthless and not worth much effort.
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Post by spoon on Nov 4, 2017 11:59:32 GMT -5
Can't believe you said this. Just two hours ago, my wife was explaining to a client who's a WW2 vet --a funny, wonderful, 91-year-old -- about all the ruin Trump has brought and will continue to bring. Not only does he say that everybody's getting a grand as a tax cut and that Hilary would have been worse, but brings up that FDR planned Pearl Harbor. They sent a war warning to all the U.S. bases. The Japanese embassy was acting suspiciously and the Roosevelt administration thought something was up. So a war warning was sent to all the bases, including Pearl Harbor. But it was very very late on a Saturday, so the guy who got the message put it in a bin to be looked at later. The commanders at Pearl Harbor just couldn't even begin to imagine that anybody could pull off a surprise attack across half the Pacific, so preparing for something like that just wasn't on their radar. I think sending a war warning is an odd way to make sure a surprise attack is successful. I also don't get why FDR needed it to be a surprise attack. Imagine if FDR had specifically told Pearl Harbor that they knew that the Japanese had a huge force set to attack Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning. (Thus giving away that the US had broken the Japanese code, an action that FDR would have been (rightly) attacked for). And what if Pearl Harbor had been ready for the attack because of the president's warning? I doubt very much that the response of American citizens would have been " Well, we were ready for it. So we don't need to go to war with them." There are numerous places where the "FDR knew" theory makes absolutely no sense. Exactly. If the navy was ready for the massive Japanese surprise attack, that would still be good reason to go to war, but the U.S. wouldn't be in such a huge hole because of all the ships destroyed, sailors killed, and territory lost (in the places Japan was attacking simultaneously with Pearl Harbor). Like a lot of conspiracy theories, "FDR knew" incorporates hindsight in a nonsensical way. It takes as a given that FDR should know that the U.S. will bounce from the attack rather than having its navy being devastated beyond capacity to match Japan. Furthermore, I remember in "Tora! Tora! Tora!", which was supposed to be scrupulously accurate, that top military intelligence people actually exclude FDR from the top tier of people who received crucial. Yes, military leaders froze the President out from certain information at that point.
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Post by spoon on Nov 4, 2017 8:46:31 GMT -5
Saw it. Really enjoyed it. Thor vs Hulk was fun. Hela was awesome. Thor/Loki dynamics were great. Another Stan Lee cameo that made me smile. My only quibble? At times it felt like they were trying too hard to add humor. I was underwhelmed by the movie. It didn't feel like an action/drama film spiced with bits of humor. It felt more like a comedy seasoned with bits of drama. I'm not averse to humor in Marvel Cinematic Universe films. I have Ant-Man on blu-ray and it's one of my favorite MCU films. It's more a matter of tone, character, and consistency. In Ant-Man, Scott Lang is a reforming small-time thief and a bit of a rogue. It fits to have him joking, and he can switch to dramatic moments. People like Hank Pym are more serious in the movie and it feels real, because the humor comes out moments that feel real. In contrast, in Thor: Ragnarok, it feels like Taiki Watiti thinks this whole thing is really dumb, so he might as well mock it. It's the opposite of suspension of disbelief. It's not a matter of funny people in a real world, but rather a whole world that's ridiculous. Thor is one of the biggest clowns, and his brand of humor doesn't fit as well as in prior films. In other films, Thor's ego is used as the main driver of humor. It's fish-out-of-water stuff. But in T:R, Thor is a source in any way possible. He cracks jokes all over the place. He's a slapstick clutz, and so on. I might have been more receptive to this if it would part of a standalone movie, but it's part of a shared universe with an established personality for Thor. By analogy, The Lego Batman Movie is actually my favorite recent Batman movie, but I would hate it if was made as a live-action sequel to the Nolan Batman films.
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Post by spoon on Oct 14, 2017 15:53:52 GMT -5
Captain America #3411st story: "Break-In" 2nd story: "Free Speech" 3rd Story: "In Our Midst!" 0.75 USD @ May 1988 Writer: Mark Gruenwald Penciler: Kieron Dwyer Inker: Al Milgrom Colorist: Bob Sharen Letter: Jack Morelli Editor: Ralph Macchio & Marc Siry Editor-in-Chief: Tom Defalco 1st Story Synopsis: Arriving in his Pacific Mansion with his date, Tony Stark did not notice an awaiting and repulsed Steve Rogers. Tony was caught by surprise, and escorted his date to the door to postpone for another evening to the chagrin of his date. Steve tossed the adamantium shield to Tony striking him in the gut. They verbally went back and forth basically Steve telling him, he is not accepting the adamntium shield as a bribe in order to keep him from interfering in Tony's little war with companies and agencies that has his technologies. Tony threw the shield at Steve at the same time picking up his briefcase and going through the door. Steve deflected the shield and upon getting to the door, out emerged Iron Man in his Silver and Red Armor. Iron Man vs Captain America pre-Civil War I battle has commenced. Cap was getting the better of Iron Man with his maneuvers but Iron Man's strength advantage, flight, and repulsor blasts takes down a shield-less Captain Steve Rogers. Iron Man left but not before telling Steve he won't see him any further until he finished his war against the government agencies and companies that stole his technology. Steve found himself thinking about his priorities. Is he a renegade Avenger on a misguided quest? Tony is his friend and it is better to give Tony a chance to clear his name and restore his tarnished honor. 2nd Story Synopsis: Lemar reintroduced himself with a new costume and name, Battlestar. As Battlestar and new Captain America John Walker headed over the Washington Monument that afternoon, they were introduced in a press conference to the public. Captain America gave a brief speech that he is not the original, but the hand picked successor to the original. They received mixed reactions from the crowd. Then Battlestar addressed the crowd, and got a better positive reaction from the crowd. Then a helicopter arrived and two figures jumped out and landed on the stage and addressed the crowd as Left-Winger and Right-Winger, and told the crowd the new Captain America's alter ego name, John Walker thus revealing the new Captain America's secret identity to the public. Cap and Battlestar go into action and found out it's two of their traitorous former comrades. The battle went back and forth until Cap and Battlestar finally took them down and subdued their opponents and had them led out by the authorities, but not before threatening to reveal Battlestar's secret identity to the public also. The duo of John Walker and Lemar couldn't believe their former army friends would be this resentful against them. 3rd Story Synopsis: In a supervillain hideout, Serpent Society leader, Sidwinder gathered the group in a meeting to welcome four new members. As the charter members showed the new members to their quarters, one of the new members, Fer-de-Lance activiated a signal beacon summoning The Viper who teleported to her room. They make it to Black Mamba's room and take her out. Dressed up in Black Mamba's revealing dress, Viper goes into Sidewinder's room, and bit the unsuspecting Sidewinder in the neck this injecting the poison unto him. Feeling groggy, Sidewinder lunged for his cloaked and teleported elsewhere before Viper could get to him. A weakened Sidewinder emerged in Diamondback's room and collapsed. Diamondback immediately rushed for the snake venom universal anti-toxin to save him from death, and they used Sidewinder's cloak to teleport out of her room as another new member crashed through the door. They ended up in the control room, and as Sidewinder slips into unconsciousness, Diamondback sees in the multiple monitors that there are snake guys roaming freely around whom she doesn't recognize. She doesn't know who to ask for help or who to trust. Then she suddenly got a unique idea, the only person everyone can trust, so she called Captain America's hotline to ask for help. Comments: The best part about reading the Avengers is the confrontation among the members. Here we get the classic case between Steve and Tony. But at the end, after the battle Avengers are teammates and better yet, good friends. And Steve decided he'll give Tony the benefit of doubt to prove himself and to restore his lost honor to him. After the press conference, the public now knows there is a new Captain America, and it didn't go over too well. The public is always weary of something new replacing the status quo. Also, with their former friends revealing his secret identity to the public, who knows what kind of damage and danger this will bring to John Walker and his loved ones. When Peter Parker revealed himself to be Spider-Man in Civil War I, criminals went after Aunt May, until she was nearly killed by an assassin's bullet. Will something similar befall John Walker? I remember now why I liked this Gruenwald run. It's when Captain America ended up dating Diamondback of the Serpent Society. And it made for good storylines as their relationship changed and progressed from adversaries to acquaintances to eventual lovers. I didn't know there was a coup d'etat that occurred within the Serpent Society. I only recall Viper usually appearing in Nick Fury comic books as an antagonist to S.H.I.E.L.D. Chopping a single issue up into three stories doesn't seem like something that would work well, but I really like how it turned out here. It helps to develop the multiple storylines and a lot is packed into short stories. This is another big step in building up the story arc. The weakest story is the first one: The Captain (Steve Rogers) vs. Iron Man. Gruenwald selectively has Rogers behaved rigidly about legality in some cases, but not in others. I was bored by the notion that he'd prioritize fighting Tony over other threats, so this put an end to that storyline. In the second story, the transition of the new Bucky (Lemar Hoskins) into Battlestar is an important metafictional moment. As I noted before, I think he was written somewhat stereotypically earlier on. I think this story is a tacit acknowledgement that it would be better not to play into racist stereotypes or at least not create that perception. Also, the Bucky uniform is a boyish outfit for an adult man, whom it is pointed out, is actually taller than the new Cap. The former Buckies, Jerome and Hector, become Right-Winger and Left-Winger, but there's no evidence that represents any actual political positions. It may just be a superficial attack by Gruenwald. I get the impression he was a libertarian. The story shows Gruenwald's ability to pull a plot thread through a long path. The threat to reveal Walker's identity started at the beginning of his tenure, and the revelation to the public in this story will have huge implications as this arc continues. One of the panels where Jerome uses his torch-blade to strike Walker's shield is an homage to a previous cover (#327 I think) in which Walker as Super-Patriot fought the previous Cap. There's some symbolize to holding the public welcome for the new Cap at the some site (the Washington Monument) where he caught the Commission's eye. The public roll-out for the new Cap turns out to be a mess. That's rather appropriate, as the Commission is trying to foist the new Cap on the public despite knowing he stole Guardsman armor, and you know, turned Professor Power's head into spaghetti. I love the Serpent Society having its own story. The mystery of the quartet of snake-themed villains who weren't part of the Society gets its payoff when they turn out to be agents of Viper used to take over the group. We also see two more new snakes recruited by Viper on a computer monitor: I believe this is the first appearance for both Coachwhip and Boomslang. I like that we get to see a bit of the internal circumstances of the Society. Since Sidewinder is a mastermind more than a fighter, having him be a middle-aged man fits. And we get to see his relationship with Asp. Although I think a lot of complaints about political correctness are ill-founded, I do wonder if today's Marvel editorial would hyper-sensitively nix Diamondback in her spandex exercise outfit as too cheesecakey.
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Post by spoon on Oct 6, 2017 11:05:42 GMT -5
I've got a motley assortment of reprints and originals that essentially gives me X-Men from issue 1 to the end of Claremont's run. I don't keep good track of what I own post-Claremont.
Silver Age: X-Men #1-53 (reprinted via Marvel Masterworks) X-Men #56-63, 65 (reprinted in the X-Men Visionaries Neal Adams TPB) To fill in the gaps, I bought floppies of #54, 55, 64, and 66. I also have some floppies duplicating issues that I have in HC/TPBs (22, 48, 51). The one think missing is the back-up story in #56, which isn't reprinted in the Neal Adams TPB.
I have 3 reprint versions of Giant-Size X-Men: 1) Marvel Milestone Edition, reprinting the whole issue, including ads 2) X-Men Special Edition #1, reprinting the main story with a new cover and a new back-up story with Kitty and Illyana (from the 1980s) 3) Classic X-Men #1, which omits and replaces several pages
Bronze/Claremont Era (main series): I have #94-280 in one form or another. 1) Classic X-Men's reprinting skipped four issues (106, 110, 141, 142). I have the original of #106. I have #110 in a weird b&w digest size book from Tor that reprints 3 issues and rearranges the layout of the panels. I have 141-142 as the Days of Future Past TPB (which omits the last pages of #142). 2) #168-176 via the From The Ashes TPB. 3) #266, reprinted in a giant-size comic that reprints the respective first appearances of Gambit and Bishop 4) The remaining issues from #94-280 are a mix of Classic X-Men and originals, but I don't have a list. I know the earliest issue covered by Classic that I have as an original instead is #139. Then, I don't have any originals until the 150s. My collection becomes predominantly originals instead of Classic starting after the From the Ashes TPB, but the last issue I have via Classic is #206 (which I believe was the last issue of the reprint series).
Annuals: I think I have all the annuals in the Claremont era via reprints or originals, but I'd have to check.
Minis/one-shots: 1) Wolverine 1-4 (via TPB) 2) Kitty Pryde & Wolverine #1-4 3) Magik #1-4 4) X-Terminators #1-4 5) X-Men/Alpha Flight #1-2, via a square-bound reprint 6) X-Men: Heroes for Hope 7) X-Men vs. Obnoxio the Clown 8) X-Men at the State Fair of Texas 9) Marvel Fanfare #1-4 (via Savage Land TPB) 10) X-Men vs. Fantastic Four #1-4 11) X-Men vs. Avengers #1-4 (via TPB) 12) I know I have the X-Factor issue of Mephisto vs. I'm not sure if I have the X-Men issue of the mini. I'm probably forgetting some other obscure stuff.
I also have most of the X-Factor and New Mutants comics of this era.
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Post by spoon on Oct 4, 2017 20:11:46 GMT -5
Captain America #340"Breakout" 0.75 USD @ April 1988 Writer: Mark Gruenwald Penciler: Kieron Dwyer Inker: Al Milgrom Colorist: Gregory Wright Letter: John Morelli Editor: Ralph Macchio & Marc Siry Editor-in-Chief: Tom Defalco [snip]Comments: It's good that prior storylines from other comic books resonated in the book. And Steve Rogers remembered when he was tied up and helpless and couldn't save Jarvis from the beatings from a super powered Mr. Hyde. There's a lot of side plots going on here. Nomad is still jealous of losing his girlfriend to D-Man. And D-Man being a newbie superhero, showed cowardice against a superior opponent. Looks like there's going to be a showdown between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers in the upcoming future issues. Yes, Mark Gruenwald does a good job juggling multiple heroes and allowing moments for each to have character moments or continuations of their own subplots. Falcon is the experienced, old hand of the sidekicks. Part of D-Man's apprehension is that he had a heart attack a few issues before this review thread starting. I think D-Man is a brave guy, but he has reasons to fear for his life. Gruenwald's take of Nomad seemed to be giving him a mean streak, which sort of fits, because he was a villain of sorts as Bucky to the 1950s Cap. Vagabond is worked slowly into contributing to the team. I think Gruenwald wanted to avoid having a novice with super-powers become a skilled fighter overnight. Armadillo was a good candidate to be convinced to surrender. He was introduced earlier in Gruenwald's run. He's not strictly a villain. He's more of a tragic figure caught up in circumstances. If I recall correctly, he agreed to become super-powered as part of a plan to get Dr. Karl Malus to save the life of his girlfriend, who then ended up dumping him. This issue also features one-half of one my favorite villain duos. I love the pairing of Mr. Hyde and Cobra, but Gruenwald uses them separately. Hyde is an escapee here, and Cobra appears in various issues as a member of the Serpent Society.
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