shiryu
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Post by shiryu on Jun 4, 2017 8:46:19 GMT -5
I think most Batman fans can be lumped into one of two groups: either you love The Untold Legend of The Batman, or you love DKR. Where would Batman: TAS fit between these two? I'm more of a Marvel person and I haven't read too many Batman stories, but probably the period leading to Knightfall is my favourite (blue cape, yellow oval so to speak). But if I'd have to point to my absolute favourite version of the character, it would be TAS and the rest of the Timm animated universe.
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shiryu
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Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 19, 2017 2:09:38 GMT -5
That's an interesting topic. I have never seen a collection, but I take it you have already seen the Wikipedia page? It lists several future staffers who wrote letters/were letterhacks, plus references that may help in your search. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_letter_columnThough neither book has a list, The Best of the Legion Outpost book by TwoMorrows has some names and info on the topic, as does Bill Schelly's Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom. Thank you, I actually wasn't aware of that page and it's a good starting point. I'll make some research over the next few weeks and see what I can put together.
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shiryu
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Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 18, 2017 16:45:24 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I should post here or revive one of the two older topics linked, but anyway I started reading US comics around 1990. At that time, in Italy American superhero comics were just beginning to make a comeback after an absence of about 10 years. The new publisher had a lot of old material available, but wasn't certain the general public would be interested and could only afford to buy the rights for one or two books at the time, so they started printing 45-50 pages Spider-Man issues containing one or two Spider-Man stories (by Stern) and/or about half a Fantastic Four story (or even less, by Moench and then Byrne), to gauge readers response. When Fantastic Four proved successful enough, it was promoted to its own book and paired with Miller's Daredevil and the Hulk, while Claremont and Byrne's Uncanny X-Men took its place on Spider-Man. This was then followed by a Captain America (by Stern and Byrne) + Avengers (by Shooter) + Alpha Flight (by Byrne) book. To make things more complicated, the editor-in-chief had to be very selective to avoid sales slumps that could get a book cancelled, so entire eras or at least arcs were deemed not good enough and skipped altogether. This meant that the various stories weren't in sync, and you could see a certain team of Avengers making a guest appearance in a Cap story while a completely different one was starring in their own book story just a few pages later. To make things even more complicated, another publisher bought the rights for another group of characters, including Thor, Iron-Man and various mutant titles, so every time there was a crossover they either had to skip it, or reach an agreement, or publish their own half regardless of when the rest would be printed by the other company. All of this is to say that it was a big mess. Now, in July 1990 my mum took me to the dentist. I didn't want to go but was soon to discover that as an 8-year-old my opinion didn't really matter. Apparently I behaved really well so, as a reward, she took me to the newsstand to buy whatever I wanted. I was a regular reader of Mickey Mouse, but I already had that week's issue. When I was looking around, I saw Uomo Ragno (Spider-Man) #53 ( this book here). I liked it enough to pester my dad for #54 the following month, and to look for Spider-Man in other books, which led me to buy Captain America and the Avengers when I mistook a fake Spidey on the cover of this story for the real deal. I was only allowed one comic book per week so I didn't become a regular reader until much later, but since then I always kept an eye out for Marvel books trying to make sense of that messy continuity, and got the odd one now and then.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 18, 2017 16:09:23 GMT -5
This could be tricky, but is anyone aware of any website/book/resource listing or reproducing letters printed on Marvel comics written (the letters I mean xD) by past/present/future writers/artists/editors or their partners?
I'm aware of a couple of letters by Kurt Busiek, and reviewing a Cap story from the Gruenwald era for my blog I found a letter written by Roger Stern's wife criticizing the direction the book was taking, so I'm curious if there's more and if they've ever been collected somewhere.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 18, 2017 15:57:22 GMT -5
I have massive gaps in my FF reading experience as they were never among my favourite Marvel characters. From what I've read, I'd go with the Byrne run too, but I'm now reading the classic Lee/Kirby stories (some for the first time) and they are better than I thought. Very silly most of the times, but pretty fun.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 18, 2017 15:53:53 GMT -5
I have the soft-cover 2011 edition which was the most up to date at the time, and it was really useful to get official info about certain characters and teams. Unfortunately it stopped with issue #5, I suppose due to low sales now that you can find everything online. In fairness, Wikipedia is pretty good with most major and minor Marvel characters, but I would have liked to complete the series.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 10, 2017 6:53:08 GMT -5
Thank you. It's certainly not the definitive history of the MU but if you like this kind of stuff, it's certainly worth having. I have the DC Vault too and IIRC it had the same pros and cons.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 10, 2017 6:48:57 GMT -5
Thor annual #10 had a nice explanation for the existence of the "mythological" god that allowed Marvel not to insult anyone, religion-wise. Itbwas explained that when on life-bearing worlds, there is a certain substance (simply called "god stuff") that gets shaped by the dreams and beliefs of living beings, and that out of this god stuff Olympians, Asgardians and all other classical gods are formed. That means we can have, as in some issues of Thor, a character who is called Indra and has all the attributes of that god, without him being the "real" Indra. A cop-out, to be sure, but a clever and elegant one. I vaguely remember too, and this was given as the explanation for why gods need someone to believe in them, otherwise they would cease to exist. But at the same time it poses a new problem since not many people would believe in Odin by the 20th century, and yet there he was. I suppose a more logical explanation would be "the belief and knowledge" of living beings, so for example the Vikings' belief created Odin and his pantheon, and then they survived thanks to their stories being told over the centuries as myths more or less everybody has heard of.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 9, 2017 17:43:57 GMT -5
So hard! It feels I could change my mind at any minute. At the moment for me it's a tie between from Avengers/JLA, and this Thor from Avengers V3 #1
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 9, 2017 17:13:55 GMT -5
Interesting. There are a few Thor stories (vy Doug Moench IIRC) from the late '80s addressing religion and Marvel always seems very respectful, much more so than when gods from other mythological pantheons are involved. Thor even mentions a power "even higher than allfather Odin" once or twice, when asked about God in the Christian sense. And didn't both Ben Grimm and Nightcrawler die and go to Heaven in more recent stories from the last 10-15 years?
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 9, 2017 17:03:46 GMT -5
I have just been reviewing the original Marvel Vault for my blog ( link here if anyone's interested) and I found out there is a 2nd edition updated to 2016. Does anyone have it, and is it worth buying if you already have the original edition? I'm a bit uncertain as it looks like most of it stayed the same with only some new pages added.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 4, 2017 16:24:27 GMT -5
It's online! And looks awesome Plenty of interactions already.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 4, 2017 16:21:46 GMT -5
I liked it a lot, despite the plot being a bit flimsy. It's a very character-driven movie, but everyone has some time to shine and we get a lot of character development from Drax, Gamora, Nebula, Yondu and Rocket. The only one who's underused is Mantis.
Great humor too, effective for the most part. Awesome soundtrack and cool cameos.
EDIT: there are FIVE post-credit scenes! So make sure to stay until the very very end.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 4, 2017 16:19:01 GMT -5
I'm now nearly at the end of the Black Panther Epic Collection volume, covering BP's origin and the Panther's Rage storyline. It's a long (12 parts!) story I had never read and towards the final third it definitely starts dragging on. At its best, it offers a bunch of new and graphically-interesting villains, an epic journey for the Panther and a very insightful look into the struggle of ordinary Wakandans to depart from their old ways and accept technology, something that wasn't really touched upon either in Fantastic Four or Avengers. Unfortunately at times it gets too wordy and philosophical at the expense of clarity and immediacy. I'm also not sure it's the best saga to introduce the Panther to new readers, as he actually doesn't shine all that much throughout. But, for those who already know and like the character, I'd recommend it.
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shiryu
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by shiryu on May 4, 2017 16:02:54 GMT -5
There was the infamous incident where Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner were told by Stan Lee that they had to print a retraction of their God/Sise-neg story because it may have been offensive to religious people. Instead, they wrote a fake letter from a "Reverend" talking about how illuminating the comic was to the children in his congregation, then they mailed it from Texas. When Roy Thomas got the letter, he didn't know it was fake and decided to print it instead of the retraction. Ha! That's fantastic. I remember a letter full of praise in one of the earliest issues from someone in the Bullpen. Sol Brodsky maybe?
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