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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2015 9:02:30 GMT -5
I read Amazing Spider-Man #211 last night. Since I've read an entire two solo Spider-Man issues, I'm going to guess that the on-going theme for Spider-Man is trying to turn his head from those who need help, but then realizing he cannot. And if he does, he comes back to bite him in the butt?
Because I have read Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #211, and in both issues he was all, "Yeah, not my problem." and takes off, only to end up helping anyway, in some capacity, because it comes back to bite him in the butt for refusing the first time. Or maybe not "because", but it ends up happening anyway.
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Pat T
Full Member
Posts: 102
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Post by Pat T on Dec 8, 2015 18:07:21 GMT -5
I read Amazing Spider-Man #211 last night. Since I've read an entire two solo Spider-Man issues, I'm going to guess that the on-going theme for Spider-Man is trying to turn his head from those who need help, but then realizing he cannot. And if he does, he comes back to bite him in the butt? Because I have read Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #211, and in both issues he was all, "Yeah, not my problem." and takes off, only to end up helping anyway, in some capacity, because it comes back to bite him in the butt for refusing the first time. Or maybe not "because", but it ends up happening anyway. Yes, it is a recurring theme for Peter. It's been a while since he's thought about quitting, though. It never works out anyway.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 8, 2015 18:19:34 GMT -5
I'm currently reading through Paul Jenkins' run on Hellblazer from the mid-90s. I happened across most of the issues in a second-hand shop. It's really solid so far - Jenkins retains elements from the Delano and Ennis runs, without reveling in the worst excesses of either. A lot of the run tries to tie up loose ends from previous storylines, but it does help make Constantine's rather convoluted history more focused and cohesive. John's latest batch of friends do grate on the nerves a bit, though. I was extremely surprised to enjoy Jenkins' run so much after having been completely sold on Ennis's version of Constantine. Agreed on the new friends... They also seemed a little tacked on, because we were under the impression that most or all of John's old acquaintances had been killed by then. Still, I'm glad they weren't introduced just so they could all be used as cannon fodder. The art by Sean Philips played a big role in my appreciation, I'm sure; the man made the book very believable. But Jenkins really knocked it out of the ballpark with his subtle stories that walked a thin line between the spooky and the mythological. His England sure looked like an interesting place! Jenkins really is the strongest writer on the title right after Delano. He went back to what made Hellblazer political and english to the core when Ennis went most of the time for shock value and plot twists. I strongly suggest Coil as background music to enjoying this run as well as Delano's : they really embody that old pagan wickedness that england managed to retain despite the growing christianity hold on culture.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Dec 8, 2015 19:40:02 GMT -5
Just read Dr. Strange #170 (from when the series went from Strange tales to being called Dr. Strange for some dozen issues or whatever). I really enjoyed and also have read several Strange Tales issues that feature him.
In general, are most of his titles from the late 60's and early 70's (including the Marvel Premiere issues) pretty good? I'm not looking for anything mindblowing, just crazy comic goodness.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 8, 2015 21:33:15 GMT -5
Just read Dr. Strange #170 (from when the series went from Strange tales to being called Dr. Strange for some dozen issues or whatever). I really enjoyed and also have read several Strange Tales issues that feature him.
In general, are most of his titles from the late 60's and early 70's (including the Marvel Premiere issues) pretty good? I'm not looking for anything mindblowing, just crazy comic goodness. I suppose opinions will vary on the writing (I love most of it; I read them in the Essential Doctor Strange last year), but the art is almost uniformly great! Lots of Gene Colan, and also Frank Brunner, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell, Alan Weiss. Beguiling Bronze Age Badassery!
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 8, 2015 21:57:51 GMT -5
Just read Dr. Strange #170 (from when the series went from Strange tales to being called Dr. Strange for some dozen issues or whatever). I really enjoyed and also have read several Strange Tales issues that feature him.
In general, are most of his titles from the late 60's and early 70's (including the Marvel Premiere issues) pretty good? I'm not looking for anything mindblowing, just crazy comic goodness. I suppose opinions will vary on the writing (I love most of it; I read them in the Essential Doctor Strange last year), but the art is almost uniformly great! Lots of Gene Colan, and also Frank Brunner, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell, Alan Weiss. Beguiling Bronze Age Badassery! I haven't read all the Roy Thomas stuff, but it's generally not considered his best work. The Englehart Dr. Strange is uniformly amazing. And then I kind of lost track. I've read about half the Stern/Paul Smith run and liked it a lot.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Dec 8, 2015 22:03:22 GMT -5
Just read Dr. Strange #170 (from when the series went from Strange tales to being called Dr. Strange for some dozen issues or whatever). I really enjoyed and also have read several Strange Tales issues that feature him.
In general, are most of his titles from the late 60's and early 70's (including the Marvel Premiere issues) pretty good? I'm not looking for anything mindblowing, just crazy comic goodness. The extent to most of my Dr Strange reading is Vol.2 from around #15-27 or so. It started out as a few issues to be a good a Starlin completionist but I went on to buy issues previous to what he did and really enjoyed them. I think the other writers were Steve Engelheart and Marv Wolfman. Of and around those issues I read top notch reading. Certainly crazy comic goodness. Edit: I do have Marvel Premiere #7, 8. While paging through it I don't recall the story in detail, glancing at Starlin's art in 8, I remember how well his art complemented the mystic aspect of the story.
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Post by berkley on Dec 8, 2015 22:16:22 GMT -5
I think I may have asked this before and been given an answer, but since I forget whatever I was recommended before and the subject has come up again, which Constantine runs are essential reading?
I never followed the character after Moore stopped writing Swamp Thing and was a latecomer to Vertigo, so I missed the solo Constantine series in its entirety. I know a lot of well-known writers worked on it at various times but seem to remember hearing that a few of those one might have expected to be good matches for the character turned out to be a little disappointing.
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Post by berkley on Dec 8, 2015 22:26:30 GMT -5
Just read Dr. Strange #170 (from when the series went from Strange tales to being called Dr. Strange for some dozen issues or whatever). I really enjoyed and also have read several Strange Tales issues that feature him.
In general, are most of his titles from the late 60's and early 70's (including the Marvel Premiere issues) pretty good? I'm not looking for anything mindblowing, just crazy comic goodness. The Ditko run that started it all is of course essential. After that it's up and down for the rest of the 60s until the Roy Thomas/Gene Colan run, which is also essential IMO, but for Gene Colan's outstanding artwork rather than the writing. In between those, I like the Marie Severin and Dan Adkins runs, also for the artwork. In the early 70s there was another period with average writing by various people but once again some excellent artwork by Barry Windsor-Smith. Then comes the Steve Englehart period, first with Frank Brunner and then with a returning Gene Colan. The Englehart run is absolutely essential in its entirety. After Englehart left the book it and the character never recovered, IMO. I think Starlin might have been able to do something interesting if he'd been given the time and suitable inkers - as it is he only wrote 4 or 5 issues and his artwork was unrecognisable underneath Rudy Nebres's inks. I know some readers have enjoyed a few of the runs since then, but from what I've seen they're uniformly pedestrian. Decent Marvel-style comics of the time, perhaps, but after Ditko, Colan, Brunner, and Englehart, my standards for Doctor Strange are much higher than that.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2015 22:26:32 GMT -5
Regarding Dr. Strange-a lot of it is very good, some of it is uneven. I likes the '68 series for the most part, even if Roy had to make it more super-hero-ey with the mask to try to salvage sales. The Colan art and cosmic goodness of those issues is still top notch.
The Marvel PRemiere issues are unever because of creative team turn over-Stan LEe and Barry Smith do issue 3 but it is a standalone. Gardner Fox starts a Lovecraftian tale in #4, but the art is meh, Starlin comes on for a couple and then Englehart and Brunner take over and that leads into the ongoing. The Englehart Brunner issues are the peak for me. Colan comes back to replace Brunner and the storires are still very very good, but Englehart is ousted mid story and Marv Wolfman takes over to undo the Englehart story he didn't like as editor and the book is just plain bad and directionless under Wolfman who ditches everything Englehart was doing without having a clear direction of what he wanted other than not what Stainless Steve was doing (and resorting to it was all a dream and illusion by this new bad guy and none of it really happened to try to distance the book form the Englehart stuff). The art transitions a lot, lots of fill ins even though it was bi-monthly, and even Starlin coming back can't bring it up to better than mediocre. Roger Stern comes in to finish things off trying to resolve Wolfman's senseless storyline in a manner that makes sense but the results are pedestrian. Then Claremont comes on board for another pedestrian run. It doesn't really pick up again until Stern returns for his own run rather than doing mop up work for someone else. I am in the middle of the Claremont run in my reread and I have been struggling to get through the issues since Englehart left, despite Doc being my favorite Marvel character.
-M
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Post by berkley on Dec 8, 2015 22:52:38 GMT -5
Regarding Dr. Strange-a lot of it is very good, some of it is uneven. I likes the '68 series for the most part, even if Roy had to make it more super-hero-ey with the mask to try to salvage sales. The Colan art and cosmic goodness of those issues is still top notch. The Marvel PRemiere issues are unever because of creative team turn over-Stan LEe and Barry Smith do issue 3 but it is a standalone. Gardner Fox starts a Lovecraftian tale in #4, but the art is meh, Starlin comes on for a couple and then Englehart and Brunner take over and that leads into the ongoing. The Englehart Brunner issues are the peak for me. Colan comes back to replace Brunner and the storires are still very very good, but Englehart is ousted mid story and Marv Wolfman takes over to undo the Englehart story he didn't like as editor and the book is just plain bad and directionless under Wolfman who ditches everything Englehart was doing without having a clear direction of what he wanted other than not what Stainless Steve was doing (and resorting to it was all a dream and illusion by this new bad guy and none of it really happened to try to distance the book form the Englehart stuff). The art transitions a lot, lots of fill ins even though it was bi-monthly, and even Starlin coming back can't bring it up to better than mediocre. Roger Stern comes in to finish things off trying to resolve Wolfman's senseless storyline in a manner that makes sense but the results are pedestrian. Then Claremont comes on board for another pedestrian run. It doesn't really pick up again until Stern returns for his own run rather than doing mop up work for someone else. I am in the middle of the Claremont run in my reread and I have been struggling to get through the issues since Englehart left, despite Doc being my favorite Marvel character. -M I've come to the reluctant conclusion that apart from Tomb of Dracula and to a lesser degree Night Force, Marv Wolfman doesn't rate too highly with me as a writer. His stints on superhero series like Daredevil don't often rise above the "good but not great" category, in my eyes. And I never understood the appeal of Nova - seems like fans just automatically go for the idea of a teen nonentity raised from obscurity into power and prestige. Teen Titans was good for what it was - a Claremont X-Men style team book - raised to another level by the Perez art. The only other Wolfman idea I really liked was Skull the Slayer, which was cut off before it had chance to go anywhere. Claremont again was very good at writing solid superhero stories but I look for something more than that for Doctor Strange. I have a similar impression of Roger Stern. No offence to any of these writers or their fans, but when it comes to Doctor Strange I think a special kind of writer is needed - and the character hasn't had one since Englehart, IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2015 23:00:35 GMT -5
Regarding Dr. Strange-a lot of it is very good, some of it is uneven. I likes the '68 series for the most part, even if Roy had to make it more super-hero-ey with the mask to try to salvage sales. The Colan art and cosmic goodness of those issues is still top notch. The Marvel PRemiere issues are unever because of creative team turn over-Stan LEe and Barry Smith do issue 3 but it is a standalone. Gardner Fox starts a Lovecraftian tale in #4, but the art is meh, Starlin comes on for a couple and then Englehart and Brunner take over and that leads into the ongoing. The Englehart Brunner issues are the peak for me. Colan comes back to replace Brunner and the storires are still very very good, but Englehart is ousted mid story and Marv Wolfman takes over to undo the Englehart story he didn't like as editor and the book is just plain bad and directionless under Wolfman who ditches everything Englehart was doing without having a clear direction of what he wanted other than not what Stainless Steve was doing (and resorting to it was all a dream and illusion by this new bad guy and none of it really happened to try to distance the book form the Englehart stuff). The art transitions a lot, lots of fill ins even though it was bi-monthly, and even Starlin coming back can't bring it up to better than mediocre. Roger Stern comes in to finish things off trying to resolve Wolfman's senseless storyline in a manner that makes sense but the results are pedestrian. Then Claremont comes on board for another pedestrian run. It doesn't really pick up again until Stern returns for his own run rather than doing mop up work for someone else. I am in the middle of the Claremont run in my reread and I have been struggling to get through the issues since Englehart left, despite Doc being my favorite Marvel character. -M I've come to the reluctant conclusion that apart from Tomb of Dracula and to a lesser degree Night Force, Marv Wolfman doesn't rate too highly with me as a writer. His stints on superhero series like Daredevil don't often rise above the "good but not great" category, in my eyes. And I never understood the appeal of Nova - seems like fans just automatically go for the idea of a teen nonentity raised from obscurity into power and prestige. Teen Titans was good for what it was - a Claremont X-Men style team book - raised to another level by the Perez art. The only other Wolfman idea I really liked was Skull the Slayer, which was cut off before it had chance to go anywhere. Claremont again was very good at writing solid superhero stories but I look for something more than that for Doctor Strange. I have a similar impression of Roger Stern. No offence to any of these writers or their fans, but when it comes to Doctor Strange I think a special kind of writer is needed - and the character hasn't had one since Englehart, IMO. I think Warren Ellis, J.M. DeMatteis and David Quinn all did some interesting things with Doc at the tail end of the Sorcerer Supreme series, but Quinn was hampered by editorial mandates to keep things in line with the Midnight Sons line and cross-overs, Ellis did his typical hit and run of I have an idea but not sticking around to develop it, and DeMAtteis was a bit self-indulgent with his own explorations of eastern mysticism, which worked on a book like Seekers into the Unknown for Vertigo, but took the interesting stuff he was doing on Doc on a tangent for me. All three had potential but ultimately failed to be good Doc runs, but aside form Roy's extended reutrn which wa smore solid if not spectacular stuff, it was the best we got on a regular series post-Englehart. I will say the Stern/Mignola/Badger Triumph and Torment OGN and the Into Shamballa OGN by DeMatteis, are on par with the best of the Doc stuff from the Englehart era, and the Brian K. Vaghan/Marcos Martin The Oath mini and Frank BArbiere's one off New Avengers Annual Doc solo story have been the best Doc stories Marvel has put out this century (not that they have a lot of competition). -M
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Post by berkley on Dec 9, 2015 2:02:02 GMT -5
I think Warren Ellis, J.M. DeMatteis and David Quinn all did some interesting things with Doc at the tail end of the Sorcerer Supreme series, but Quinn was hampered by editorial mandates to keep things in line with the Midnight Sons line and cross-overs, Ellis did his typical hit and run of I have an idea but not sticking around to develop it, and DeMAtteis was a bit self-indulgent with his own explorations of eastern mysticism, which worked on a book like Seekers into the Unknown for Vertigo, but took the interesting stuff he was doing on Doc on a tangent for me. All three had potential but ultimately failed to be good Doc runs, but aside form Roy's extended reutrn which wa smore solid if not spectacular stuff, it was the best we got on a regular series post-Englehart. I will say the Stern/Mignola/Badger Triumph and Torment OGN and the Into Shamballa OGN by DeMatteis, are on par with the best of the Doc stuff from the Englehart era, and the Brian K. Vaghan/Marcos Martin The Oath mini and Frank BArbiere's one off New Avengers Annual Doc solo story have been the best Doc stories Marvel has put out this century (not that they have a lot of competition). -M I'll have a look at those two OGNs but have to admit that I'm sceptical, perhaps unfairly so. That reminds me, the P. Craig Russell Annual (late 70s?) and GN (80s?) were pretty good too. I believe I tried the first issue of Vaughan/Martin series but didn't see much value in it. Marvel's insistence that Strange be characterised something like a magical Tony Stark spoils pretty much all of his recent appearances for me (talk about editorial mandates hampering writers). That New Avengers issue I did buy, largely because of the artwork, but haven't read yet. I'm hoping against all reason that the Cumberbatch movie will be successful enough, artistically and commercially, to reboot the character back to something closer to his earlier persona, which lasted, with variations, from Ditko through the immediate post-Englehart era (when I stopped reading) and for all I know up until the last 10 years or so. Of course there are a lot of "ifs" contained in that scenario: IF the movie itself reverts to the classic version of the character (something I have no reason to think is likely), IF it's so very successful at the box office, IF Marvel then decides to tell its writers to start writing the film version of the character, ... Yeah, probably not gonna happen.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 9, 2015 3:35:04 GMT -5
I think I may have asked this before and been given an answer, but since I forget whatever I was recommended before and the subject has come up again, which Constantine runs are essential reading? I never followed the character after Moore stopped writing Swamp Thing and was a latecomer to Vertigo, so I missed the solo Constantine series in its entirety. I know a lot of well-known writers worked on it at various times but seem to remember hearing that a few of those one might have expected to be good matches for the character turned out to be a little disappointing. The 46 first issues are pretty essential in my book. The later Ennis run was effective then but I've since changed my mind about it, after reading it all and realizing it was more abou te character than his world, which is what is the most interesting to me. So all Delano, the first Ennis arc, issue 51, 77, 84, then Jenkins' run, 144-145, the Azzarelo run (maybe the best thing he ever did), then the great Mike Carey run (my fourth favorite), the Jason Aaron 2-parter 245-246, the Andy Diggle run wasn't bad either, maybe less creepy, still good stuff. And then my third favorite run on it, the last 50 issues by Milligan.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 9, 2015 6:32:23 GMT -5
I think I may have asked this before and been given an answer, but since I forget whatever I was recommended before and the subject has come up again, which Constantine runs are essential reading? I never followed the character after Moore stopped writing Swamp Thing and was a latecomer to Vertigo, so I missed the solo Constantine series in its entirety. I know a lot of well-known writers worked on it at various times but seem to remember hearing that a few of those one might have expected to be good matches for the character turned out to be a little disappointing. The 46 first issues are pretty essential in my book. The later Ennis run was effective then but I've since changed my mind about it, after reading it all and realizing it was more abou te character than his world, which is what is the most interesting to me. So all Delano, the first Ennis arc, issue 51, 77, 84, then Jenkins' run, 144-145, the Azzarelo run (maybe the best thing he ever did), then the great Mike Carey run (my fourth favorite), the Jason Aaron 2-parter 245-246, the Andy Diggle run wasn't bad either, maybe less creepy, still good stuff. And then my third favorite run on it, the last 50 issues by Milligan. I find it amazing , in this day and age, that a non superhero book has an almost 300 issue run.
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