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Post by sabongero on Jun 14, 2016 14:51:33 GMT -5
Gotham Central #1"In the Line of Duty" 2.50 USD/4.25 CAD @ February 2003 Written by: Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka Drawn by: Michael Lark Lettered by: Willie Schubert Colored by: Noelle Giddings Separated by: Digital Chameleon Assistant Edited by: Nachie Castro Edited by: Matt Idelson Quotes: "I just want to instruct our friend here in Gotham's more advanced curriculum... The tragedy if surviving loss as a preview of things to come." - Mr. Freeze "He's crazy, Renee. You've read the file. Freeze wants people to hurt. Not physically. Emotionally. Take two cops. Kill a partner... instant grief." - GCPD Detective Marcus Driver Synopsis: Two GCPD detectives, Marcus and Charlie were investigating a non-reliable tip. Charlie wanted to go home sensing the tip would yield no result, but decided to go with Marcus in case the tip turns out something concrete that would result in solving their case, which was about a murder of a young girl. Unfortunately for them, they unearthed something far more deadlier. Behind the door was Mr. Freeze, and surprised, they never had any backup. A brief one sided battle took place as Mr. Freeze's cold gun froze Marcus's hands and killed Charlie by freezing his entire body. Freeze wanted to teach the surviving detective a lesson in Gotham tragedy by letting him live, while destroying his partner's frozen statuesque body. The scene then moves to the GCPD headquarters, and we see the interaction amongst law enforcement officials. We see the general banter among co-worker from both shifts, incoming and outgoing. We also see true feelings from certain officials like the new precinct captain and one of the lieutenants. The bosses were notified regarding the two missing officers regarding officers down. Lt. Ron Probson arrived in the crime scene and was dismayed one of his men died a horrible way, and sternly told the EMT responders to get Detective Marcus immediate medical care, and then to go to the precinct afterwards. Outside, Captain Margaret Sawyer was met by Detectives Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen. Even though Allen was her favorite, the captain elected to give this Mr. Freeze case to Renee. The two detectives briefly spoke with the down and distraught Marcus who was by the ambulance getting treatment. They then went to the crime scene upstairs, and Renee was unprepared to what will befall her eyes as the horrific dismembered frozen colleague froze her in her steps in a state of shock. They did preliminary investigation in the crime scene, inferring what happened and guessing why. Later on back at the GCPD headquarters, a dismayed Marcus was at the police locker room and had a conversation with one of the sergeants to try and make sense of what happened. Marcus was summoned to the commissioner’s office who advised him that since a supervillain was involved, that the Batman will most likely be involved in this case. Detective Marcus begged the commissioner not to use the Bat Signal citing it lowers company morale amongst officers that they are not even able to do their own job. Marcus insisted the full deck of officers and detectives will handle the case. The commissioner reminded him, whether he lights the Bat Signal or not, does he really thing that will prevent Batman from interjecting himself on this case. Marcus then finds himself in the interrogation room with Detectives Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen. They went over the details on what transpired in the apartment that ended up with Mr. Freeze killing Marcus’s partner, Charlie. They are trying to figure out why Freeze kept Marcus alive, when it would have been easy to kill him without anyone knowing until much later. Then the sergeant burst in the room telling them they have an emergency. Renee told them, they don’t have time for this, but the sergeant reassured them they want to see the emergency. Somewhere downtown, a police officer discovered a shipping truck with the driver frozen solid with frozen icicles sticking out of his mouth. Comment: I have read and loved Brubaker’s run in Captain America, Daredevil, and Velvet. I have also read Greg Rucka’s long run on Wonder Woman. They are a great tandem for this series. Their plots and scripts, along with the little nuisance of police life in a precinct captures the genuine atmosphere. Michael Lark is precisely the artist for this title. His pencil duties captures the crime noir feeling and atmosphere of this book. There is just enough grittiness and edge. Each character comes across as realistic. The portrayal of Detective Marcus going through the aftermath of this tragedy is shown well, and capture the heartache and depression that followed. Detective Renee Montoya showed just how some police officials will enter a state of shock after witnessing a horrendous crime scene, with the art that captured this essence by Michael Lark. We get to know about some lingering distaste in the Lieutenant’s “mouth” seeing that he doesn’t like the new Captain who just happened to be promoted, and vice versa. The drama is capture well in both the illustration and the storytelling dialogue. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 13, 2016 13:07:00 GMT -5
One of my favorite characters as a child, Robotman from the All Star Squadron. At the time I was into robots (i.e. Voltron, Transformers, etc.), and it's just natural for me to gravitate to a "robot" superhero character at the time. Eventually, after reading more All Star Squadron, I would gravitate towards Dr. Fate as my favorite hero of the group.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 13, 2016 13:04:02 GMT -5
So I here is how I intend to grill series in this thread : 1 - Presentation of the creators involved 2 - How it connects to the movies/comics 3 - Plot summary 4 - A critique of the writing/art/relevancy with a grade Every now and then, I will probably also include some images or articles about abondonned projects or thinly related publications. So now before I start, I humbly ask the community what they think about all this and if you could think of something else you'd like me to include in the reviews? Thanks for starting this review thread Arthur. I remember the Aliens vs Predator comic books that I bought back in the 90's but cannot recall what they are about. I'm looking forward to more posted reviews from you on this Aliens title.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 8, 2016 21:07:53 GMT -5
This is a really good one issue noir story by the Brubaker/Phillips dynamic duo.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 8, 2016 19:46:22 GMT -5
Shaxper reading through your reviews here, it just renewed my interest in reading Superman comic books. The Superman I am familiar with aside from the movies, is the Superman of the Superfriends and Justice League Animated series Superman. By the way, I know people talked about the so called "wusification" of Superman from the Superfriends era to the Justice League Animated series era. Being less invulnerable makes for better stories. But I was told the Verheiden written stories of Superman had the character being too emotional that it lessened the character too much.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 7, 2016 14:28:28 GMT -5
I'm just doing some backreading, and it's some great thought-provoking posts here over the last several hours alone. I just wanted to add a little to the discussion. I suppose the gist of "The American Way" is adhering to the principles of the most famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence, "... life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Although "the pursuit of happiness" was changed by Thomas Jefferson which he took from John Locke's "life, liberty, and property." Perhaps he should have just left John Locke's original trinity, and left "property" there instead of "pursuit of happiness." I'm joust going out on a limb here, as the majority and almost all Americans would partially consider in their belief that the "pursuit of happiness" also includes the pursuit of wealth and status, like having a luxury car, a luxurious house, etc. Of course the "pursuit of happiness" can mean many things to different people. But if "property" was left in place in that trinity, then Thomas Jefferson was also exercising his right to "life, liberty, and property" as he owned 200+ human beings who themselves were not allowed by Thomas Jefferson to pursue their own happiness.
Hmmmm... I'm getting a migraine. I suppose needless to say, "The American Way" is left to each individual's interpretation and would also depend heavily on that person's status in society and timeline in history. I daresay it can also be interpreted cynically in the modern age especially for non-Americans as of course, America is viewed differently from the outside than how Americans perceive themselves.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 6, 2016 15:59:55 GMT -5
What If…? #15: Nova Had Been Four Other People? 60 Cents @ July 1979 (Cover Page and 34 net pages) Writer/Co-Editor: Marv Wolfman Framing Art: John Buscema & Joe Sinnott Colors: Michele W. Letterers: Higgins & Watanabe Co-Editor: R. Thomas Consulting Editor: R. Thomas Watcher Quote: “Worlds co-exist with many other worlds. For there are levels of reality. And your planet Earth exists on but one such level. On one Earth, a man will live, yet, on an identical Earth -- the man will die, while on a third identical world, the man will lie comatose... The man exists on all three worlds, the same man, and yet, a very different man. Listen now, and learn of four such worlds, and four heroes, similar and yet different from the man you call, Nova!" "Four worlds, four Novas, and four fates! Such is how reality is. We've seen the corruption of absolute power, and we've witnessed charity rewarded with death! On one world, the powers of the gods are rejected, and on a fourth world, the powers are abused! All the while, I stand and observe. I can do no more, for, I am the Watcher. And that is both my destiny and my curse!" Synopsis: The story began with the Watcher narrating the origin of Nova, the Richard Ryder Nova Corpsman. He then does a monologue doing a brief history and description of the Nova from the regular Marvel Universe. Then he went on to tell the story of the other four Novas in this issue. The first one is about Helen Taylor. A thief just murdered her husband and got away as he died in her presence in the street. She vowed the murderer will pay for this dastardly deed. In a snowy winter, visiting her husband's grave, she was struck by a laser from above. And she was instantly transformed to a Nova Corpsman. She begged for a miracle, and it happened. Realizing her power, her rage for vengeance took over, and she went through the criminal world in search for her husband's murderer. Her violence knew no bounds as she tried to unearth information about the killer, even citing that the innocent victims are the cost of her personal war. Her violent search through the criminal world eventually landed her in the presence of the Kingpin, who tried to discipline her high atop his high-rise skyscraper headquarters. He failed and as she left his premises by crashing through the window, the Kingpin was drawn outside and fell to his death as he begged Helen to save her. Helen Taylor's actions as Nova drew the attention of the President, and he instructed the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards to immobilize her to keep the general public safe. Helen was attacked by robots and disposed of them. And it was the Fantastic Four who wanted to take her in and neutralize her. They did battle, and she was more than a match individually against three of the Fantastic Four. At the end of the battle Helen's oxygen supply was cutoff when the Invisible Woman placed an invisible force field around Helen and thus suffocating her to unconsciousness. The team brought Helen back to the Baxter Building and placed her in stasis and then sent her to the Negative Zone until they can bring her back to their world where it would be safe for mankind. Reed Richards is troubled as to what caused Helen Taylor's psychosis that drove her mad. The story ended with cops pulling a car from the bottom of a river with a crane and finding a dead man in the steering wheel. Unknown to them, it is the man that murdered Helen Taylor's husband. The second story is about changing a person's outlook of not putting the superpowers to altruistic use. We join the story of a tramp who was kicked out of a house along with his pet cat in the middle of a snowy winter. Apparently he was just looking what kind of work he could do for the household for payment for his stay for the day. As he gathered his things and led his cat away, a piece of clothing came out of his bag which he picked up and placed back inside his bag. It was the uniform and face-gear helmet of a Nova Corpsman. Above the planet Earth a fleet of Skrulls are heading for the Earth to plunder its rich mineral wealth. Their sensors sensed a high energy that is not of the planet's origin, and headed for the location. Meanwhile, the tramp managed to knock on a door of an orphanage and asked the lady if there is anything he can help with for his payment for their hospitality for the night. And he helped look after the kids for the night, and he told them a story. His story. His name is Jesse, and he told the kids his story. The children surrounded him and gave them his attention. The orphanage governess noticed this paying attention that the kids almost forgot about their dinner as they were in complete payment of attention to Jesse's story. And suddenly the door is blasted open and a Skrull emerged from the doorway, and Jesse confronted the aliens about the damage they caused. And the Skrull just blasted Jesse with his blaster. There was no damage other than tattering Jesse's clothes. In quick fashion, Jesse put on his Nova Corpsman uniform and started tangling with the Skrulls, one of which turned into a giant alien snake which coiled around him and squeezed. The Skrulls brought Jesse with them to their warship. Feigning unconsciousness, Jesse listened to the Skrull's plans, and then finding out that he was in the presence of the Captain of the Skrull Armada, he went into action and battled the Skrulls around him. And then he attacked one of the consoles which according to the Skrull captain was suicide. After Jesse attacked, a burst of explosion happened. Down on the orphanage, the children pointed out to the sky where there is a star-like light that kept getting brighter and brighter, a nova. The third story started with Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider. But on this Earth, the spider has absorbed too much radiation, that Peter's body could not metabolize it. He is rushed by an ambulance to a hospital. His guardians arrive, and upon learning what happened to him, his Aunt May has a heart attack. She is rushed into the emergency room. And Uncle Ben withers down to a chair helpless as his two loved ones are in critical care. Hours later, the surgeon approached him in the waiting room and informed him that Peter was saved, but that May had just succumbed to death. Some time later, a disabled Peter Parker (the result of the bite of the radioactive spider) is being wheeled chaired by Betty Brant and he becomes so embittered and full of self-hate that he tells Betty to stay away from him if she values her life as bad things happen to those he love. In the University, Peter becomes so self-absorbed with work in the laboratory that he becomes a recluse and refused to even have a life outside of the laboratory. Just then, and emerald laser hits him and he is suddenly dressed in the garb of a Nova Corpsman. He finds out that he is able to walk, and fly. He flies home to ask Uncle Ben what to do as he always valued his advise. Upon reaching his home, he sees a burglar sneaking in through one of the windows and he sees the burglar surprise and pull a gun on Uncle Ben. He crashed through the wall and the burglar suddenly fired the trigger. Fortunately, the bullet hit the side of Peter's bulletproof armor, and it ricocheted and hit the burglar and thus killed him. Peter, who was so full of self-hate since being crippled by the radioactive spider, couldn't believe his bad luck. He blamed himself for killing the burglar and not even considered it self-defense as his uncle pointed out. He confessed to the policemen that came in afterwards, who also told him that it was self-defense. A self-loathing Peter Parker discarded his Nova Corpsman uniform and vowed to never ever use his powers. The fourth story is a gloomy ending indeed. The recipient of the Nova Corpsman powers did not even have a name except that he helped the means of eliminating the superheroes of the Earth by joining forces with the Red Skull, Dr. Doom, and the Sphinx, and utilizing the deceased former Nova Corpsman's satellite as a space base of operations. Upon defeating the superheroes of Earth, this villainous Nova Corpsman declared victory and that he should lead. It was a very uneasy and unstable alliance amongst this group of supervillains. This did not bode well with Dr. Doom who treacherously teleported himself later that night to Nova's quarters to eliminate the novice supervillain. But the blast missed Nova and they did battle. Doom gloated and told Nova to pledge his allegiance to him , and that he, Dr. Doom, would spare his life. And suddenly Doom just started choking on his words and collapsed to the ground. Nova picked up Doom and found out he was dead. Then he was blasted from behind by the man who killed Dr. Doom, The Red Skull. The Skull decided that he has been trying to conquer the world for such a long time, that he cannot rule it with others. It did not take out Nova permanently and blasted him again. The Red Skull turned to the Sphinx and gloated. The Sphinx in turn disintegrated the Red Skull with the spirit stone that was in his forehead. The Sphinx was looking for peace, and trying to find out about death. A severely weakend Nova, tried to attack the Sphinx, but was himself disintegrated by the Sphinx's spirit stone blast. And the Sphinx is the lone survivor, who for centuries has been seeking nothing but death. Comments: The first story is about how a tragedy opens a person's descent into madness and vengeance. The Helen Taylor story is a good story about how a tragedy can put a person to a path of madness and vengeance. The only problem I have is Reed Richards taking the President's orders without fail and sentencing a comatose Helen Taylor to the Negative Zone. She may be powerful as a Nova Corpsman imbued powerhouse, but she has just received her powers recently and she is in Annihilus' domain now. It is like Reed Richards sentencing someone to death. This genius level thinker is acting like the Wildstorm Publications genius supervillain Tao. The second story was one of great selflessness. The great powers were not even thought to be used for any reasons other than when there was a dangerous situation present. Perhaps because there was no precedent about superheroes populating this Earth, that Jesse just did not have any inclinations to showcase his power to the public. The third story is about Peter Parker who ended up with so much self-hate and feeling that he's a jinx that the radioactive spider bite that left him a cripple turned him into a recluse lab rat. Even being bestowed with Nova Corpsman powers did not set him right. He was full of too much self-loathing that he blamed everything on himself and couldn't see things correctly anymore in life. Too much negativity affected the psyche, and he couldn't escape the self-hatred and self-blaming that built up in him. The fourth story just tells you the end of the superheroes on Planet Earth. Basically, just having a space based HQ and a really good gameplan of attacking the superheroes at their weakest points, can provide ultimate victory for the supervillains. And even after that victory, these guys just plain hate having equals to rule the world, that they turn on each other.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 6, 2016 15:58:36 GMT -5
Sorry guys, I am skipping What If #14, as I cannot find that issue in my box.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 6, 2016 15:58:05 GMT -5
Great review, sabongero! Danette in that story is Roy thomas's then-friend and future wife. She would help him write many comics, including a good part of Arak, son of Thunder. It was fun to have her play a fictional role in this story! As all good "What if..?" stories, this one departs from an actual adventure : in Savage sword of Conan #7, Conan and Alhambra do escape from the well at the center of time and the Cimmerian doesn't end up in our era. This issue had a sequel, or rather the basis of another What if..? alternate timeline : in a later issue (which i hope you will review some day!) Conan stays stuck in the present and becomes a street gang leader, just as he would have done in Shadizar the Wicked. Thanks Roquefort. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you and the others are enjoying the What If thread.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 6, 2016 13:16:06 GMT -5
Shang-Chi has piqued my interest. Unfortunately, the only thing I've read with him in a comic book is the short lived run around the original Marvel Civil War era of Heroes for Hire, and I didn't like the way they ended the run with Shang Chi killing one of his team mates for the World War Hulk crossover. Sad
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Post by sabongero on Jun 6, 2016 10:15:08 GMT -5
Relevant to the discussion is the use of the phrase. Originally, on the radio and in the animated shorts, Superman fought "a never-ending battle for truth and justice". The phrase would later be amended. So "the American way" was added to the radio show during the war, retired after the war and then reappeared on the TV, which debuted in 1952. Because Communism? Just a guess. Prince Hal, definitely nationalism at its core, when it was used during WWII and in the 1950's when Soviet and Chinese Communism was generating paranoia in the Western Hemisphere. I suppose "Superman Red Son" would beg to differ on that front.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 5, 2016 18:49:40 GMT -5
In your opinion, what would "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" mean in the different decades (30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010's)?
I was just reading All Star Superman and Superman Rebirth. And then I just happened to read an old Action comic book from the late 1980's. When I typed Superman in youtube, I was brought to the old 50's series of George Reeves, and the introduction always had "Truth, Justice, and the American Way." It led me to think about that classic catchphrase.
Superman is indeed a symbol of truth and justice. It always has and it always will. He is also a symbol of hope and inspiration.
As for "The American Way," that would depend on the opinion and interpretation given from which time, and I would suppose from which demographic and tax bracket of society that would be giving that opinion. In the 1950's perception of good and evil was somewhat more black and white than what it is today in modern society, which is more covered in the gray area, an amalgamation of good and evil. We are in a more modern, more cynical, and dare I say more "darker" time where the perception of an anti-hero is more popular and accepted than that of a scrupulous individual.
Feel free to post your opinion of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" and the decade(s) you are citing your opinion of this catchphrase.
Thanks in advance to everyone's post.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 4, 2016 15:37:49 GMT -5
I do consider it sabotage, but at least in that case Editorial didn't walk over the work of the current creative team. So like "Sins past", it can also be considered "only" a very, very bad idea. (Although I believe Sins past did go against the writer's wishes, as he wanted Gwen's kids to be also Peter's children... something that made far more sense, considering we had access to Gwen's thought balloons during her alleged affair with Osborn). I consider it sabotage. Didn't Queseda decree something like "Readers will only identify with Spider-Man if he is a loser living in his aunt's basement"? Interesting to know what the EIC thinks about Marvel's readership. I'm surprised he also didn't decree that Reed Richards should become a high school dropout flipping burgers for minimum wage. After all, if reader's cannot identify with peter Parker being gainfully employed and happily married, then surely there is no way they could identify with a billionaire super genius who owns a skyscraper, right? Queseda committed company-wide sabotage by forcing his personal beliefs into every Marvel book. No one is the Marvel universe smokes. All married women who are not mothers must die, in order to make their husbands 'interesting'. And they must die, because divorce is wrong (but making a deal with a demon to eradicate your extremely happy marriage is fine). Presumably if he had ever become a vegetarian, he would have decreed that no Marvel character could eat meat. I know Logan/Wolverine liked to smoke the cigars, and remember seeing him smoke a lot in the older comic books. It's too bad even this regular habit of his has to stop just because of editorial. After all, he does have mutant healing powers.
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Post by sabongero on Jun 4, 2016 8:02:20 GMT -5
After watching the Robotech Saga, what series are you watching now?
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Post by sabongero on Jun 4, 2016 7:59:23 GMT -5
I was just blown away by DC Universe Rebirth #1. And some of my favorite characters was in this issue. I was really taken aback and felt really great reading this. After a long hiatus of almost two decades of not reading any comic books, I started reading comic books again back in 2006, when I happen to have found out that Hal Jordan was killed off in Green Lantern. Yes, I was so far out of touch of comic books, that I found out Hal was killed off almost 12 years later. I happened to pass by a comic book store and purchased a hardcover book collection of Green Lantern Rebirth, and my love of comic books came back, and this time reading it as an adult gave me new joy.
And it is just the right time after a few years to decide reading new comic books again with the release of Rebirth comic books. At the decade of the mid to late 2000's some of my favorite characters were Wally West and Ryan Choi. And it is great to see them here in this issue of DC Universe Rebirth #1. Wally West it is great to see him brought back, and it is good to see Ryan Choi alive again. I hope to see the supporting cast as well. They were interesting.
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