|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 11, 2018 1:19:24 GMT -5
Don't forget his flagship... Pshaw. This doesn't even Darkseid's name written in big letters on the side. For all we know that is the Bizzarro-mobile or the Mxyztplk Maurader. An embarrassment to supervillain vehicles, not fit to be in the same thread as the ThanosCopter.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 10, 2018 20:25:13 GMT -5
As for The Metal Men ... I love them. And I would have loved them in 1964 if I had been reading the series, but I was born in March of that year and wasn't reading comics for a few years yet. Surprisingly, The Metal Men was a wildly popular comic book! I came across this when I was looking into Batman sales figures (which are not on this list, unfortunately) and it's always been a wonder to me. This is Comichron's list of comic book sales for 1964 ... and The Metal Men is at #14! 1964 Comic Book Sale Figures(I was just scrolling ahead a bit and found that, in 1966 (the first year that Amazing Spider-Man is listed), The Metal Men is at #12 and The Amazing Spider-Man is at #16. The Brave and the Bold is at #26.) I'll have to dig into the MM at some point. Just the other day, on a 'Silver and Bronze Age Marvel'-themed group on Facebook, there was a long discussion of Ross Andru's Spider-man artwork...started by some guy who hated it, and played the 'I can't be the only one who feels this way' card(Aside from one other fellow mental patient who agreed, the response was overwhelmingly pro-Andru). The only justification the guy had for disliking Andru's art was basically 'He used to draw the Metal Men!' Weeelllll... As much as I like the Spider-Man vs. Superman treasury, I never liked Andru on Spider-man proper. He was - at his core - a cartoonist, and try as he might he never effectively emulated the John Buscema derived '70s Marvel house style. The anatomy was wonky, the action sequences fell flat. But he was a cartoonist, so he was a perfect fit for Metal Men.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 10, 2018 0:40:45 GMT -5
No! There is a lot of Ted Rall I haven't read. Basically my problem with Rall is (A) his politics are uninteresting - They don't seem particularly well thought out beyond "generic liberal." I can always predict where he will stand on an issue (which, to me, is a sign of stupidity) and he's never challenged me or made me think.
And he just seems like a dick, smarmy and not-as-smart-as-he-thinks-he-is, and quick to take offense (and th But there is a lot of his work I haven't read (IE everything in the last ten years) so he could have improved.
And I quite like the Long Halloween! Loeb is a terrible plotter but great at figuring out his artists' strengths and writing to them. And I care way more about cool visuals than plot.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 8, 2018 16:16:14 GMT -5
40. Zot! by Scott McCloud
Read: Yep.
Oh! Good one! Zot veers back and forth between "very good" and "amazingly great." I definitely need to re-read.
39. BPRD: "Plague of Frogs," "The Dead," "The Black Flame," "The Universal Machine," and "Garden of Souls" by John Arcudi, Mike Mignola, and Guy Davis
Read: Some of the beginning
I'm not a Hellboy guy! I'm sorry!
38. Planetary #1-12 by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday.
Read: Yeah.
I kind of liked the end of this series, but thought the beginning was boring. It was all these big "widescreen" panels which meant there wasn't a lot of actual story content, and I need a certain amount of stuff happening to keep me engaged.
37. Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson
Read: Yes.
Just a spectacularly fun mish-mash/dissection of horror tropes, propelled by Wrightson's amazing visual vocabulary. Love this stuff.
36. Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga by Pat Mills,John Wagner, Brian Bolland, and Mike McMahon
Read: Probably not.
I've read maybe two Judge Dredd stories. I am weak on British comics in general.
35. The Authority, volume one by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch
Read: Yeah.
I really, really, liked the story where the Authority fought "God" but found the rest of it too cynical and "isn't violence cool" for my taste. I do really like Warren Ellis' stuff! You guys are just choosing the wrong stories!
34. The Metamorphosis Odyssey by Jim Starlin
Read: Yeah.
Liked it, and agree with everything MRP said about conceptual depth... but Starlin is the most TELL don't SHOW writer in all of comics. I can only take so many pages of beautifully illustrated infodump.
33. New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract Era by Marv Wolfman and George Perez
Read: Yes.
Really quite liked it when I read the collected edition 15-or-so years back, but I've been reading the recent New Teen Titans trades from the library and they. are. a. slog. So I dunno now.
32. Doctor Strange by Ditko & Lee by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee
Read: Yes.
Two thoughts: (A) Ditko is the greatest surrealist in mainstream comics at the peak of his prowess. (B) Not as good as Spider-Man.
31. Justice League of America: The Unknown Soldier of Victory by Len Wein, Joe Giella, and Dick Dillin
Read: Yes.
Hmm. I think I've liked every comic listed published before 1976, and this is no exception. Combining the structure of a Gardner Fox story with greater characterization and pathos as well as some Kirby-esque epic grandeur, this might be the high point for the JLA. It is sad to realize that comics turned to $%^# as soon as I was born, though.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 8, 2018 15:51:26 GMT -5
A lot of these Malibu (and other 90s indies) just blur in my mind. I know I picked up a few, and maybe even read them, but nothing stands out. <unfair generalization> The 80s independents-- Fantagraphics, Eclipse, Renegade, First, etc.--seemed to be looking for unique books. in the 90s, they just seemed to want to do what Marvel and DC were doing.</unfair generalization> Y'know, I'm just not seeing much similarity between Ghost World and Darkstars or Acme Novelty Library and Terror Inc. On the other hand I didn't know that First or Renegade lasted into the '90s.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 8, 2018 15:39:17 GMT -5
My one big gripe with Grant Morrison is how he tends to take complex villains and turn them into mustache twirling Nazis and Bond villains. What he did with Magneto was easily the worst part of his X-Men run, though whoever decided to undo Magneto's reform and make him a villain again in the late 80s/early 90s also really messed up. Ra's al Ghul was brought up here, and if anything Talia was even more complicated, being torn between her love for her father and Batman, while also being torn between their respective ideals. Morrison screwed that up royally and I doubt her character will ever recover from his assassination of her. Oh boy. I really loved Grant Morrison's Magneto... He was writing about how people's symbology and the stories/myths that built up around them are more potent than the actual person. But I am against nuanced villains in superhero comics in general. Superhero books aren't really designed for deep characterization - COMICS can be, but X-Men is not Love and Rockets or Nana - and if you give a villain to much nuance they stop being villains, which is a problem if you're clinging to the simplistic "good guy"/"bad guy" dichotomy... which virtually all continuity based superhero books are. So I think that Morrison style symbolism and metaphor are a better approach. Also, well, Magneto was really into attempted mass murder for a lot of years. Wasn't THAT out of character.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 21:26:05 GMT -5
Brave and the Bold # 50 - I've always heard that it mirrored World's Finest - Batman knock-off plus (at the time) Superman knock-off. I never thought of B & B and as a tryout book, except for the Teen Titans.
# 51 - Is a classic for the ages, you guys are wrong. Howard Purcell just destroys, the whole thing is beautiful with insanely great monster designs.
# 52 - Yeah, see you and raise. Best issue of B & B, period. HAUNTED Tanks shot down planes every time. Even Haunted Planes (See Next Episode.)
# 53 - Nice to see Iris COMPLETELY in character, but no acknowledegment of how Haney adhered to continuity. I basically love every panel of this, from the Atom's body language to the Flash's speed effects to the best drawing of Barry Allen EVER on page 3.
# 54 - Was the first appearance of the junior version of the JLA which had been being discussed for years in fanzines and the JLA letter Page. Seriously. This story has been promised f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I think that editorial intent trumps in-story continuity, and this is an obvious try-out for a series to anyone who was intently following DC's output at the time. So, first Teen Titans, IMO. (ALso, the strangest Bob Haney plot I have ever read. But Bruno Premiani grounds it surprisingly well. I think Preminani might be the best pure artist to ever work in superhero comics.)
# 55 - I mean, the Metal Men ALWAYS die, but this one was strangely disturbing. Ramona Fradon is the most Eisner-y artist of her generation.
# 56 - I don't own yet and is the only team-up book in the first 20 years of team-up books I've never read. I didn't know it had Hawkgirl in it. I might have to break down and order this off the internet, which is "cheating" for my team-up book collection. (I'm still missing some of the damn Harvey team-ups.)
I felt like the series went downhill after.. eh.. # 60 or so. B and B 51 - 60 were just world class artist after World class artist, and Murphy Anderson, Win Mortimer, Mike Sekowsky (who is brilliant on not superheroes) and George Papp just don't compare.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 19:56:10 GMT -5
I've heard that there is fairly universal agreement that Jesus (A) existed, (B) was baptized by John the Baptist, and (C) was crucified, with everything else being conjecture. Or possibly one guy was baptized and another was crucified.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 17:22:40 GMT -5
By contrast, (and I forget where I read this) I heard that Kirby intended Darkseid to be fairly week and cowering once the heroes finally tracked him down, showing that evil is not that powerful and that bullies are all bark and no bite. (Which is also kind of interesting, IMO.)
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 17:13:24 GMT -5
A nice balance of stuff I don't particularly like and stuff I haven't read in this one. 49 (tie). Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?by Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenburger Read: Yeah. No, I mean, it's really good taken on it's own merits. It was basically a horror story, though, and SO cynical. Didn't feel like a good coda to the Earth-1 Supes. But I'm more a story guy than a continuity guy, so I'm not gonna bad-mouth it. X-Men: “Gifted/Danger/Torn”by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday Read: Yeah. S'okay. I liked it just fine. 6 outta 10. I remember a lot of the plot, and I am not a plot-rememberer! Ooh! I was using Collossus "I AM MADE OF RAGE!" in casual conversation for a while after reading this. 48. Doctor Strange: The Oathby Brian Vaughan and Marcos Martin. Read: 90% sure I read this. But I remember nothing about it. Did it have a new Night Nurse in it? Was that this one? Marcos Martin turned into my favorite mainstream comic artist of the 2010s! 45 (tie). Magik: Storm and Illyanaby Chris Claremont, John Buscema, and others Read: Nope. I read the New Mutants and X-men issues cited. 45 (tie). Hellboy: The Wolves of St. Augustby Mike Mignoa Read: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to read the description before I remembered it! Hellboy never quite worked for me. I don't know why, I love Mignola and this is exactly the kind of thing I appreciate. I really like the Nocturnals which are are basically #$%^ier Hellboy and intellectually I know this but Hellboy never quite hits my "awesome" button. But this one and the first Plague of Frogs stories are the Hellboy stories I liked. 45 (tie). Captain America: The Winter Soldierby Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Michael Lark, John Paul Leon, Lee Weeks, and Mike Perkins. Read: Yeah. No reaction/blase. I remember dutifully getting every volume of this run in HC out of the library, reading them all, and not really remembering anything about them. Until "The Death of Captain America Vol 3." I really liked "The Death of Captain America Vol 3." Great action sequences! 44. Iron Man: Armor WarsRead: Maybe, like, 1 issue. I'm poorly read on Iron Man. 43. Avengers vs Defendersby Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, Bob Brown, and others Read: Uh-Huh. I like "Superheroes split into teams" stories, + '70s Englehart is. my. freaking. Ja-a-a-a-a-am. Buuut there are a couple dozen '70s Englehart stories I like better. This also led to a billion crappy crossovers, so I resent it for that. 42. Starmanby James Robinson and others My single least favorite mainstream comic of all time. I don't remember very much about it, just that I tried to read it 2-3 times over the space of a decade and just. freaking. loathed. it. But better than Ted Rall or Ivan Brunetti. Fun Fact: CBR did a fan vote of the top 100 stories, and since they are more mainstream and less Euroepan/weird than this list, I've read 99 of them. Everything but the last volume of Starman. 41. The Unity Sagaby Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Roger Stern, Barry Winsor-Smith, Ernie Colon, Bob Layton, Sal Velluto, Frank Miller, David Lapham, Don Perlin, Stan Drake, Mike Leeke, Walt Simonson, and Joe St. Pierre Read: No. Someday I will try to read Valiant. It didn't happen this last decade. It didn't happen the decade before that. It almost certainly won't happen in the upcoming decade. But maybe someday!
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 16:23:55 GMT -5
For those who don't know the story. The original Starlin Thanos design was closer to Metron, not Darkseid. It was Roy Thomas that suggested Starlin revamp him to the be more like Darkseid. I never read a lot of Thanos because he seemed like a less interesting Darkseid, just a cosmic tough who engaged in close quarters combat instead of doing most of his dirty work from a distance, as true tyrants like Kang and Dr. Doom were known to do. The other character that I think of in the same breath is Claremont's Apocalypse, who also never caught my fancy. Okay. So. I don't disagree with all of that, but I love Thanos. Dude in literal love with LITERALLY DEATH is a great, great character hook. And being "Marvel Darkseid" isn't a bad thing to be. The two always represented their respective companies for me... Darkseid is dispassionate, intellectual, removed... A good representation of the "Flash Facts"/parallel world based sci-fi/Let's teach the kids Science! (and don't offend the comics code with violence) DC intellectualism. While Thanos was about operatic passion and physical action. He was... well, he was really K-I-R-B-Y (and, hence, Marvel) in a way that Darkseid wasn't.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 16:16:41 GMT -5
59 (tie). Superman: Secret Identityby Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen
Read: Yeah.
So it's basically the Earth Prime Superboy who debuted in DC Comics Presents and I love team-up books. Anyway, I think this is the o-n-l-y time "real world" type superheroes have ever worked for me. Great stuff.
59 (tie). Captain America: The Psychotic 1950's Cap/Bucky issues by Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, and Sal Buscema
Read: Yeah.
Huuuuge fan of everything Englehart did at Marvel in the '70s, and this was a smart examination of what Captain America represents, which wasn't something that anyone talked about until this run. (Mostly he just whined his way through the Silver Age.) Great, great, great, love, love, love.
54 (tie). Tor by Joe Kubert
Read: A little more than half, I think. Definitely all of the '70s DC series, the first of the hardcovers, and none of the '90s series.
Joe Kubert is my favorite artist, so I'll read the whole thing straight through someday. Good story, BTW!
54 (tie). Peter Allen David's "Supergirl" by Peter David, Gary Frank, and others
Read: Yeah, but not this decade/century/millennium.
Ehhh.... I thought it was really thematically daring for '90s superhero comics, but maybe it's reach exceeded it's grasp a little bit? At the time I was a little annoyed that it wasn't Supergirl=y at all, but I don't care about that anymore. I remember liking the semi-sequel Fallen Angel better, but I only read the first trade. Anyway, it's been a loooonnnng time on this.
54 (tie). The Orc Treasure by Kevin J. Anderson and Alex Nino
Read: No, and never heard of. I think I read a Mary Gentle book with the same plot?
54 (tie). The Legion of Superheroes, Volume 4
Read: I... don't think I've read a single issue of this. I'm honestly just now getting into the Legion.
I read TwoMorrows Legion Companion and a bunch of interviews with all the creative teams, though! So I feel like I understand what it was about.
54 (tie). The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud (as Moebius)
Read: This was published in English by Marvel/Epci in three volumes. I own the middle one.
Hoping Dark Horse's Moebius Library gets to this sooner or later.
53. The Avengers: Mansion Siege by Roger Stern, John Buscema, and others
Read: Yes!
Roger Stern is never mind-expanding or amazing, but at his best he's very, very good. This is very, very good.
52. Thor: The Surtur Saga by Walt Simonson
Read: Yeah.
So like I said when talking about Manhunter, Simonson's stuff looks rushed and crappy to my eyes when compared to his DC '70s work. And while he did wonders with Balder and the Warrior's Three, he never made boring old Thor less boring. (This might be impossible.) I really liked the lead-up ("DOOOOOM!") but don't remember much.... okay, anything, about this story per-se, though I know I've read it twice.
51. Conan: Red Nails by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith
Read: I... don't think so? I read some Conan treasuries with BWS art. I don't think they included Red Nails, though. Quite liked what I read of the Thomas/Smith run!
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 6, 2018 7:00:18 GMT -5
Wikipedia says (Note: Wikipedia is wrong A LOT!) That the idea behind Infinity Gauntlet came from Steve Englehart (not Starlin) as a Silver Surfer storyline. Marvel Editor in Chief Bob Harras had never head of Thanos but thought the storyline had crossover potential. So they got Starlin to write it.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 5, 2018 21:40:58 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I forgot about both of those. It does prove that other people were interested in/wanted to use Thanos.
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Apr 5, 2018 20:19:43 GMT -5
So I wanted to track Darkseid's rise to "A" list supervillain, and I thought I'd throw Thanos is in here, because there are some interesting paralells.. It's weird that (A) Thanos is definitely Jim Starlin's most popular creation, and (B) Darkseid is almost certainly Kirby's most popular solo creation. And that they both came from fragmented, truncated runs that jumped around over multiple books. It's not like Doctor Doom who had decades of Fantastic Four appearances to be established as a threat. So what was the first non-Kirby Darkseid appearance? Secret Society of Super-Villains? And did he have any other appearances (other than Conway's short New Gods revival) before the Great Darkness Saga? I suspect the Great Darkness Saga gave Darkseid a profile boost, but it was the Super Powers cartoon, comics, and toys that REALLY cemented him as a major DC villain. Agree/Disagree? And Nobody used Thanos but Starlin (except cameos) for a looong time. Thanos popped up in some other people's books during the Infinity Gauntlet, but Starlin was still in the driver's seat. And Infinity Gauntlet elevated Thanos from part-of-a-cult run to major, major, major villain. I just picked up Secret Defenders # 12, and that must have been one of the first non-Starlin approved Thanos appearances. The Thanos Reading Order Here cmro.travis-starnes.com/character_details.php?character=675&page=3&list_type=2&limit=40&order_listing=1Has Thanos showing up in a bunch of Ron Marz penned cosmic type comics after Starlin left Marvel. But by the time ANYONE else really wrote Thanos, he was already a (the?) top tier villain.
|
|