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Post by rberman on Dec 26, 2019 11:10:53 GMT -5
Finally finished Season 2 of Luke Cage. I found the first season to be an engrossing examination of the varied experiences of blacks in urban America. The second season had a cool villain (Bushmaster) and engrossing mobster soap opera but left the main character adrift, until remaking "The Godfather" (including both borrowed dialogue and borrowed cinematography) in the last couple of episodes.
The main problem with the series was that Luke was such a loner. Daredevil and Jessica Jones had much better defined supporting casts to bounce the hero off of. If Luke Cage is going to be a noble, stoic paladin and straight-man then he needs some kind of jackass sidekick to add levity. The enthusiastic kid selling T-shirts was much to small a role to fill the void.
Power Man and Iron Fist could work as a buddy crime series, but in that case Iron Fist would presumably be the cool, collected one while Power Man would be loaded with wisecracks.
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Post by rberman on Dec 26, 2019 8:07:17 GMT -5
Then on the next page, the bombs go off as the Nazi gives away his alien-ness. That's all I have from that issue.
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Post by rberman on Dec 25, 2019 21:34:56 GMT -5
The matter of the scar tissue on Batman's back is perhaps my only quibble with the otherwise excellent, greatest Batman story ever in B&B 197 (and the later image by Ross just drives the point home): it seems to me that the bulk of the scar tissue and bruises on Batman's body would be on his front torso and face (and one would think his cape would provide a little extra protection for his back). In the illustration by Ross, it looks like most of the bad guys Batman fights are brandishing whips or, hell, steel wire, when in fact he usually gets shot at, or is attacked with blunt objects, or he gets punched or kicked. In Brenenrt's case (and Staton), I suspect the staging was based on what they could do, under the Code; so, they couldn't really show the scarring, just Catwoman's reaction to it (leading to the staging so Catwoman is looking at his back). Ross remembered the story and depicted it on his back. I think the actual scarring is probably down to what Ross could readily depict, either due to lack of research time for the types of wounds Batman would suffer or just trying for something the signified scars, without looking like Frankenstein generic scars. If you think about it, Batman should have burn scars, scars from knife and bullet wounds, blunt force trauma and more. He would probably have extensive scarring on arms and legs, then the torso. As many times as he has been conked on the head, he would probably have long term concussion damage. Then again, he probably would have bled to death a hundred times over. The scene inspired this piece by Alex Ross. And presumably this one from Astro City.
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Post by rberman on Dec 25, 2019 21:06:46 GMT -5
Two pages later, Cap is climbing up to face the Nazi/aliens. Cap has planted secret bombs. The finished page. By the way, the pencils are by Brian Hitch, and the ink by Paul Neary.
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Post by rberman on Dec 25, 2019 17:12:17 GMT -5
shaxperThe first page of original art I ever obtained was a gift from my ex-wife; a page from Russell & Gilbert's Elric. One of my first graphic novels was Night Music, but dang if I don't love that reprint cover Shaxper posted. Merry Christmas everyone ! post your pieces in the original art thread!
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Post by rberman on Dec 24, 2019 18:12:35 GMT -5
You are correct about the location. It was just devastated by Thanos' strike. It's also way out in the country, perhaps not near an army base, and anyway what would the army do? They didn't help in the original Avengers movie either, when Manhattan suffered an alien invasion. Pepper's final appearance was set up by detals of the scene at Stark's cabin in the woods. Thanks for the info. Sure, the US army isn't going to defeat Thanos' army, but is the Wankandan army really going to do all that much better? And shouldn't they at least try, considering there's a very hostile for right on home soil? Obviously, they'd be sort of unnecessary to the story, I guess, and maybe that's the real reason, whereas the Wakandan army has an Avenger as their leader, whereas the US army doesn't have any Avengers and thus isn't too relevant to an Avengers movie. It could have been an opportunity for a Thunderbolt Ross cameo I suppose.
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Post by rberman on Dec 24, 2019 17:29:01 GMT -5
I finally just saw Avengers Endgame. I enjoyed it a lot, certainly epic, and I did love that they had humor to offset the grimness. I do have some dumb questions, though. You are correct about the location. It was just devastated by Thanos' strike. It's also way out in the country, perhaps not near an army base, and anyway what would the army do? They didn't help in the original Avengers movie either, when Manhattan suffered an alien invasion. Pepper's final appearance was set up by detals of the scene at Stark's cabin in the woods.
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Post by rberman on Dec 24, 2019 12:48:19 GMT -5
#1: Superman and Spider-Man (Marvel Treasury #28, 1981, Jim Shooter, John Buscema, and a host of other artists) Come on, what else could be #1? The two marquee characters teaming up in a rousing adventure against credible threats (Doctor Doom and Parasite) requiring their collaboration, with a side of Wonder Woman and Hulk to make it extra-awesome (and fill some pages). It seems to me that Spider-Man got more character work, but perhaps that’s just treating each character as he should be treated.
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 23:43:31 GMT -5
What else? I got a set of pages from The Ultimates #10. It's a flashback to Captain America sabotaging a Nazi train, except at least one of the Nazis is an alien in disguise. It starts like this on page 2: Cap is hanging on to the side of the train, as is more obvious in the final color version:
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 22:53:32 GMT -5
#2: Swamp Thing and Adam Strange (Swamp Thing #58-59, 1987, Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala) Alan Moore was game when incoming penciler Veitch said he liked sci-fi better than horror. So off went Swamp Thing into space, meeting Green Lanterns and so on. But Moore also seized the opportunity to tell the best Adam Strange story I’ve read. Strange’s “perpetual blue-balls” premise sounds like a punishment straight out of Dante’s inferno: He repeatedly reunites with his lover, only to be snatched away before he can enjoy any time with her. It resounds with pathos that lesser pens never found words to articulate. The usual opening Misunderstanding Fight sees Strange blasting Swamp Thing, then discovering that they need to team up against some scheming Thanagarians, setting the stage for a Rann-Thanagar war that would become a big deal in the DCU.
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 16:06:31 GMT -5
5. Wonder Woman and SupergirlWonder Woman #177 (DC, 1968)Plus there is that great Novick cover. Those faces though...
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 12:41:09 GMT -5
Solo was an experiment in the early 2000s by DC where artists were given a double-sized issue to do short stories. That sounds neat! I just ordered Amazon's last copy of the Deluxe Edition compiling it. Thanks for the tip.
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 10:32:23 GMT -5
I can't remember what cartoon it was, but I am sure I saw something similar with a cop. He was riding motorcycles, driving patrol cars, on the beat, flying the police helicopter, etc. Those things tend to be specialities, at least here in the UK. I'd hazard that in America, the breakdown is something like: Almost all adults walk, obviously. 95% of adults drive cars. 5% of adults drive motorcycles (maybe 10% of male adults) 0.01% of adults fly helicopters?
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 9:41:24 GMT -5
I commented on the generic Star Wars thread previously because I couldn't find this thread. More thoughts:
This final trilogy was a missed opportunity. Ultimately Kathleen Kennedy gets the blame. She should have commissioned Abrams to do all three so that the story would have hung together and gotten proper development. What this trilogy needed to be was a stealth remake of the original trilogy, with updated special effects, so that today's kids had a Star Wars trilogy that could stand alongside other modern sci-fi movies. JJ Abrams got the ball rolling in that direction in TFA, but Rian Johnson screwed it all up with TLJ, which tried to make people feel bad for liking Star Wars movies about the Skywalkers, but didn't provide a compelling argument for Star Wars movies on some other topic. Not cool, Johnson. Worse yet, he squandered screen time on pointless filler B-plots in which Poe and Finn spun their wheels, and we didn't learn anything new about them.
Under those circumstances, Abrams did the best he could with RoS to (1) make Star Wars fun again, (2) pay off TFA instead of subvert it, and (3) shoehorn in character moments for underdeveloped characters like Poe. As a result, the plot holes are easy to find. Kylo Ren didn't do any "supreme leading" except command the search for Rey. Lando's moments were just there for feels rather than any justifiable plot purpose. People seem to travel between planets with astonishing speed, quicker than I can drive across Atlanta. Etc.
I see this new trilogy as very much like Kylo's helmet. Abrams built it. Johnson petulantly shattered it. Abrams put it back together but knew that the cracks would show, so he did his best to make those cracks appear beautiful. Sometimes that's the best you can do.
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Post by rberman on Dec 23, 2019 9:28:40 GMT -5
After this event is over, can there be an open-ended thread for honorable mentions and "didn't meet the criteria" team-ups?
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