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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 18:13:25 GMT -5
I can't imagine that Claremont enjoyed writing that way ("Wolverine, use your adamantium claws!"); surely it was a Shooter edict on behalf of "every issue is some reader's first issue." But why was that not pervasive, then? Why was it just Claremont who is known for it, or am I misremembering or misinformed? It would mainly be on team books with lots of characters to explain. Looking at a few books from that era, I see it in David Michelinie on Avengers, with the Wasp explaining her powers in detail to her teammates: And Ed Hannigan on Defenders: And Bill Mantlo on The Champions: I suspect other books would yield similar results.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 17:37:13 GMT -5
This is the kind of thing I am thinking of: I like that kind of stentorian, Shakespearean prose. The detail that the D'Bari didn't know what had happened until ten minutes later, due to the speed of light, for instance.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 17:02:47 GMT -5
I am not old enough to have followed Claremont's X-Men at the time, but when I did read the pocketbooks years later, I found it impenetrable, to be honest. And very wordy. I do not have a problem with wordy. Hell, I'm a Slaine fan, and that's so wordy you sit down with a packed lunch if you're gonna read those volumes. I like Watchmen. But there's wordy - and then there's wordy. Haha, yep. I got into comics more in the late 80s/early 90s but got into a lot of Claremont stuff from back issues, TPBs, etc. I didn't read the prime as it happened. Not just wordy, but pointlessly, tediously, repetitiously wordy for no reason. It was nice that he included information on characters, powers, recent events, etc, for new readers which were still a thing at the time, but dear God, by working them into the dialogue and thought bubbles everyone had to read it every. single. issue. I can't imagine that Claremont enjoyed writing that way ("Wolverine, use your adamantium claws!"); surely it was a Shooter edict on behalf of "every issue is some reader's first issue."
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 14:40:05 GMT -5
And yet, all the best ideas in the (non-Deadpool) X-Men movies have been his, and all the worst moments involved deviations from him. He could be melodramatic, and he had certain tropes that were eventually beaten to death, but there's a reason X-Men were the goose laying the golden egg for 80s Marvel. True, but most of those ideas are decades old at this point. I wouldn't say he was never good, but his best work is years behind him.
I seem him similarly to George Lucas in that he is a great big ideas guy whose prime is behind him but really shines with an editor and a filter. His style was far more fitting at the time, I think. It's just really hard to read in 2019. I liked a lot of his classic run, and frankly even his returns to X-Men were more often better than not. They just felt increasingly cringey and antiquated as the years past. His work includes way too much verbose exposition and dialogue, and not only did he not get leaner at the time, but he's not doing his own schtick as good as he used to. Some of his signature quirks are now ham-fisted and clunky. Even so, I enjoy when he gets a miniseries to get into the head of one of the classic X characters. No one since him quite seems to just innately get them the way he did. I'd love to see him with a strong cowriter with a more modern take he gels with. I'm still annoyed at what he did to the Exiles though. Certainly his post-80s work has not set the world on fire. I did enjoy X-Men: The End as one last hurrah. As you say, he has lived with those characters and understands them.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 12:52:36 GMT -5
Regarding Claremont, I agree that his contributions to the X-Books is impossible to overstate, and his work was a huge part of my childhood. That said, good lord, it is hard to go back and read his stuff now. It is SO overwrought. And yet, all the best ideas in the (non-Deadpool) X-Men movies have been his, and all the worst moments involved deviations from him. He could be melodramatic, and he had certain tropes that were eventually beaten to death, but there's a reason X-Men were the goose laying the golden egg for 80s Marvel.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 8:40:03 GMT -5
I haven't read "Ultimate Galactus", no. Would you say it's worth a shot? I enjoyed it. I've thought about doing a review thread on it but haven't gotten around to it.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 8:18:14 GMT -5
Basically this is a problem that arises in a gasping distribution system that has outlived its success and will not survive the current generation of Wednesday Warriors. Now, yes, I will buy monthly comics. Star Trek: The Q Conflict was intriguing enough for me to buy the monthly issues. Same with the crossover between Star Trek: TAS and Transformers. But although some DC and Marvel stories are intriguing, and I have bought monthly issues, as someone whose income fluctuates, it's better for me to wait for the trade. And for £12-15, I get the full story. Maybe it's just my social circle, but as far as those who read comics are concerned, I am coming across more and more who don't want to play the monthly comic "game". Mainly for price. And some stories are dragged out. No-one can deny the 60s Galactus story needed 3 issues, but methinks today it'd 'require' ten or eleven issues with dozens of tie-ins and a zero issue to build it up. All so a trade can be released. I see it as a different kind of value. The old done-in-one stories were great for introducing a vast array of ideas into the shared universe quickly, but at a lower level of detail, and with less focus on character. Your Galactus example is more accurate than you may know; have you read Ultimate Galactus? It does indeed unfold the story at a much more leisurely pace, with different characters getting different pieces of the puzzle.
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Post by rberman on Dec 30, 2019 0:51:03 GMT -5
Next are Steve Epting and Rick Magyar, from Crux #10 (by Mark Waid) page 22, 2002
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Post by rberman on Dec 29, 2019 19:02:16 GMT -5
Basically this is a problem that arises in a gasping distribution system that has outlived its success and will not survive the current generation of Wednesday Warriors.
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Post by rberman on Dec 29, 2019 17:33:57 GMT -5
P.S. I loved the character named “Xi’an,” an obvious reference to Karma in the New Mutants.
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Post by rberman on Dec 29, 2019 16:46:50 GMT -5
That seems to be the pattern for most of the material that did have regular Marvel artists, such as much of the first issue. That seems to be one of the problems the magazine had; the more interesting material came from other sources, not from within Marvel. Makes sense. Old artists and writers don’t like it, but a constant stream of new talent does freshen the genre.
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Post by rberman on Dec 29, 2019 10:34:38 GMT -5
My next set of original pages included some "sure, why not?" purchases of series and authors that I wasn't personally attached to, but they looked interesting in isolation. First up: Paris Cullins and Willie Blyberg art from New Gods #17 page 23, 1990. Here's the finished version.
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Post by rberman on Dec 29, 2019 9:59:40 GMT -5
Well, after a pretty lackluster middle, Mandalorian completely redeemed itself in the last two episodes. Episode 8 blows away everything Star Wars related since the original trilogy. They packed 10x more awesomeness into 45 minutes than any of these new movies could into 2 1/2 hours. I just finished the series earlier this afternoon and, after watching Captain Marvel to pass the time while my wife and daughters were out spending their Christmas cash and gift cards (as they get older, the girls get easier to buy for, as the older one, especially, wants gift cards so she can buy clothes), I logged on here to write essentially the same thing. I get why they detoured the show to more "quiet" episodes, and while they may not have been quite as bad as I originally thought, they did derail the momentum the show was building. In retrospect, I think the only episode I have a real problem with is the fifth one, because it really did nothing for this season other than tread water. I'm guessing that we will see more of Ming-Na Wen's character down the road, and that may make for interesting viewing, but when one only has 8 episodes to tell a story, every one of them needs to push that story along and that one didn't do so for the current season. Also, I'm betting that Bill Burr is a buddy of Jon Favreau's, because I cannot think of any reason to utilize him in episode 6; it totally took me out of the SW universe when I heard Burr's accent, which is not a good thing to do to an audience. Then, with the last two episodes, they created an entirely new Star Wars. They gave us a rounded character, trying to get by in the aftermath of other folks doing plenty to ruin the universe, finding a purpose in his life bigger than he originally imagined. Sure, the trappings of the bigger SW universe are still there, but this story isn't one focused on Jedi versus Sith or Skywalkers versus Palpatines or any of the legacy characters that were sadly rolled out in the final trilogy as fan service. It's possible to CARE about what happens to the Mandalorian, because he is behaving in a realistic, human way, and the story they are telling has depth beyond being crass commercialism. And wow, was Favreau eclectic with his fanservice. He lifted elements from everything. The Star Wars Holiday Special. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. The Clone Wars cartoon series. (Which will now be difficult to watch, considering how often the Mandalorians in it take off their helmets.) My favorite fan moment was when the Imperial Troop Transport rolled on-screen. Apparently it's been in some cartoons and comic books already, but never live action as far as I know. I had to explain to my son what it was. Meanwhile my teen son was enthused to recognize the E-Web before it was named, though its function appears to have nothing to do with webs and instead repeated a plot element from the first episode. As far as the plot: I agree that with only eight episodes, the middle four should have been less self-contained. And my viewing experience was a constant "But if they can X, why don't they Y?" Like, if you have a minigun, aren't closely packed enemies exactly what you want? But I tried to put those thoughts aside and relish it like the ten year old boy for which it was intended.
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Post by rberman on Dec 28, 2019 15:08:22 GMT -5
Kitty was fooling around with a Shi'ar clothing fabricator in issue #155 and used it to create a space suit and a Phoenix cosplay in issue #157. I've kind of blocked out that era of X-Men following #152. I really wanted to love the return of Dave Cockrum but there was too much attempted humor that fell flat for me if it didn't simply undermine the drama, like putting on the costume of a dead member at all, and there ^ she's done it entirely frivolously! They also brought Mastermind back who Phoenix seemed to have severely punished, but he's back quickly doing the exact same thing with another red-head. Oh yeah, I forgot Kitty was also a tech wiz suddenly alongside budding ninja and all around genius level IQ (but at least she didn't have some dialect speech, that area was already crowded enough before Rogue and Gambit). Oops, I said it again... on Claremont's starting to pass his sell-by date circa the early '80s. That was when I was just getting started, and I have fond memories through the mid-80s. #149 was my first issue, and as a tween myself I thought Kitty was way cool. I heard issue #137 was great, so I saved up an unthinkable $7 to order a copy from Mile High Comics from the centerfold ad. I hadn't seen the movie Alien but thought the Brood were creepy cool, and then Paul Smith's art was terrific, and this new guy John Romita, Jr. after him was not so great, but wow Barry Windsor-Smith, and those girls in New Mutants always in bikinis for some reason, and then there was Bill Sienkiewicz and then Art Adams, and... and... Then I got a CD player Christmas 1986, and that was the end of comic books.
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Post by rberman on Dec 28, 2019 14:38:16 GMT -5
Suspension of disbelief , I guess. It worked better when they had some kind of tech to change appearances. The X-Men had the image-inducer gizmo for Nightcrawler and later others... I didn't like that much better either. I wouldn't like it being used as an escape from a corner the writer backed into story-wise. I hated when they dressed Kitty Pryde up as Dark Phoenix once to scare aliens... that probably must've been the image-inducer they just happened to bring along into outer space? Or did someone pack a Dark Phoenix costume and wig just in case (and even though she'd died less than a couple years earlier our time, who knows how recent in 'Marvel time'). Kitty was fooling around with a Shi'ar clothing fabricator in issue #155 and used it to create a space suit and a Phoenix cosplay in issue #157.
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