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Post by kirby101 on Oct 8, 2022 12:51:57 GMT -5
The first appearance was a more humble building than later versions. Strange Tales #110 top left. |
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Post by commond on Oct 8, 2022 23:02:10 GMT -5
I like a lot of Grant's stuff, usually when he is working within the DCU/MU, but other things as well. Still there's horrid things like The Filth. You inspired me to read this, and I really liked it! Morrison tends to do good weird or bad weird, and to me, this was good weird. It didn't really amount to a whole lot, but it was the best Morrison work I've read in a while, and that includes Flex Mentallo and All-Star Superman. I really liked Chris Weston's art. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 9, 2022 13:47:45 GMT -5
I like a lot of Grant's stuff, usually when he is working within the DCU/MU, but other things as well. Still there's horrid things like The Filth. You inspired me to read this, and I really liked it! Morrison tends to do good weird or bad weird, and to me, this was good weird. It didn't really amount to a whole lot, but it was the best Morrison work I've read in a while, and that includes Flex Mentallo and All-Star Superman. I really liked Chris Weston's art. I still need to read his Green Lantern run at some point. If Marvel Boy is anything to go by, it should be pretty good
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Post by spoon on Oct 9, 2022 21:43:26 GMT -5
It's been a while since I posted, so I've done a lot of reading since. I read: 1) Daredevil Epic Collection: Dead Man's Hand, reprinting Daredevil #301-311, Annual #8, Nomad #4-6, Punisher War Journal #45-47, & a Daredevil story from Marvel Holiday Special #2 2) Essential Power Man & Iron Fist vol. 1, reprinting Power Man #50-72, 74-75 3) Uncanny X-Men #210=219 and New Mutants #46 4) Daredevil Love & War GN 5) Batman Year Two Deluxe Edition, reprinting Detective Comics #575-578 & the Batman: Full Circle one-shot [snip] I'll probably come back a little later with a follow-up post on the other stuff I've read. So the follow-up. I decided to read from the aftermath of the Nimrod story/Mutant Massacre (#210) through to the end of the introduction of the last of the new members (Havok) in #219. I added in a New Mutants tie-in to the Mutant Massacre. Halfway through I thought I could've included the New Mutants & X-Men annuals where Psylocke & Longshot first meet the team, but decided to stick to my prior plan. Since I tended to pick up individual back issues of X-Men out of order when I was kid, there are periods of X-Men that I haven't read as big runs (compared to series I started buying more when I was older). This is a transitional period. The old regular penciler John Romita Jr. draws #210 and part of #211, the new penciler Marc Silvestri starts with #218. In between (including #219), we get guest pencilers like Rick Leonardi, Alan Davis, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jackson Guice, and Brett Blevins. #210 has a nice mix of characters moments as a battle aftermath issue. Although some might think it's a cliche, there's a really good scene about anti-mutant prejudice. There is a dumb moment when Kitty blames Rachel for running out on the X-Men when she has good reason to think Rachel may have been bleeding to death in some ditch. While I think of the Mutant Massacre as a big slugfest between 2 teams, #211 is the only issue where that plays out. #212 is just Wolverine vs. Sabretooth, with the X-Men worrying about a follow-up attack, and #213 features Sabretooth against the X-Men. The brutal horror of the massacre comes through, although maybe it's a little forced by making the X-Men too inept in their response. Then again, maybe the departures of Professor X & Rachel in quick succession as well as injuries hampering Wolverine & Nightcrawler arguably hampered their coordination. After brief appearances in the 2 previous issues, Psylocke gets her baptism of fire in #213 (beautifully drawn by Davis) & formally joins the team at the end of the issues. It's a little silly that Storm is dubious about Betsy joining the team earlier in the issue since they'd be down to 3 members without her. Beggars can't be choosers. But the reinforcements continue with Dazzler joining in #214 after the X-Men go to warn her about the Marauders and run into Malice, a previously unseen member. Claremont does a good job setting up Dazzler to join with the Dazzler/Malice subplot in previous issues. Longshot, having joined in an annual, is on the team at the start of #215. At this point, the team is split in two for dueling 2-part arcs. First, Claremont sends his two faves (Storm & Wolvie) on a failed mission to warn Jean Grey's family about the Marauders (I don't know why they'd be a priority over actual mutants) where they run into three WWII vets destined to join Freedom Force. Meanwhile, Rogue & the three newbies travel to Scotland to bring three injured teammates (Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Colossus) to receive care at Muir Island and end up tangling with Juggernaut. The Storm/Wolverine story is the weaker of the two as Claremont can't help fawning over his two pets and their Social Darwinists tough guy routines while having them suffer wimpy crises of confidence. Of all these, #218 was the first one I bought & it was a big part of what made me think Rogue was so cool. I found these 4 X-Men much more likeable than Claremont's 2 faves. They function better as a team in spite of a tacked on BS ending to spin their victory in stopping Juggernaut violent rampage into a failure. As much as I like this issues, that gets me into a Claremont pet peeve. Although Claremont might be perceived liberal/edgy in his interest in the rebellious Wolverine and tough women who confound gender stereotypes like Storm and Callisto, I find there's a real authoritarian/hierarchical tinge to this. There's a bit of the douchey CEO who brags about his sink or swim attitude toward his subordinates, while putting down the work they actually do. Storm and Callisto are basically toxic masculinity in drag berating people to toughen up or quit, instead of figuring out how to be supportive in helping them to use these valuable skillsets to save lives. The irony is that while Claremont seems to admire Wolverine & Storm (often having them win arguments about being tough with cowed teammates who lack a good rejoinder), he offers plenty of material to show they're more flawed. Rogue has been doing a lot of heavy lifting with Colossus out and as the only flyer. Dazzler, Psylocke, and Longshot are holding up admirably well as raw recruits thrown into the fire. Meanwhile, Wolverine loses his mind and goes feral just because he picks up Jean's scent while believing her dead, and Storm ponders quitting leadership. The folks they long down on are holding better. And when Dazzler doubts whether she belongs on the team (or is even a real superhero), the crew in #217-218 do a better job than the Wolvie/Storm "toughen up" model. Psylocke and Longshot are supportive. And while Rogue yells at her, it's in a spirit of praising Dazzler's capabilities. She points out that Dazzler shouldn't doubt herself when she held her own in their fights when Rogue was still a villain. Which brings us to #219, where the Claremontian celebration of brutality gets pretty embarrassing. Havok went to New York to check on the X-Men. They seemed fine, but he has nightmares about them. It turns out they've implanted false memories to try to keep him out of the fray while they battle the Marauders. Well, Havok learns the truth and stumbles upon the X-Men, Wolverine and Psylocke suggest (and Storm seriously considers) killing Havok to preserve the secrecy of their plan to go into hiding and wage hit-and-run and tactics against the Marauders. This is so nuts. Killing an innocent person to try to stop the Marauders from killing innocent people is irrational. It's also bizarre not to trust someone who actual experience as an X-Men when they trust these newbies are were trying to warn Sara Grey. But we do end up with Havok's real cool costume and unique personality on the team. Unfortunately, we also get Polaris taken over by a Malice. Blame goes to both the X-Men for not finding Polaris worth warning and Havok for not finding his significant other worth taking to New York. Although I dwell on the pet peeves a lot, this is really my favorite recent reading. I love a lot of these characters so much, and the creators have crafted really classic stories. |
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Post by spoon on Oct 9, 2022 22:16:18 GMT -5
The Daredevil Love and War GN has some trippy abstract art from Bill Sienkiewicz and some interesting character bits about Daredevil, the Kingpin, and a couple character that just appear here. But when I write "bits" I really mean it. When you put together too prestige names (Frank Miller and Sienkiewicz) in a prestige format in an abstract style (even more than usual from Bill S.), I'm kind of waiting for some deep "comics for adults" meaning to come out of it. And it never really materializes. It gets late in the GN and I'm wondering when the "something more" is going to happen, and it's just a sort of small tale. It's got abstract art that pretty & interesting in its weirdness. It's got a crazy dude that draws upon that chaotic abstractness. It has a female character who Sienkiewicz makes pretty instead of just weird. And that's sort of it.
The Batman Year Two deluxe edition reprints both the four-part arc from Detective Comics and the Batman: Full Circle one-shot that reunited Mike Barr and Alan Davis a few years later to draw upon plot threads from the earlier arc. Davis drew the first part in what marked the end of the brief Barr/Davis run in 'Tec. Davis quit the series, as noted in the HC's intro, because had the gun used by Joe Chill (a crucial element in the plot) redrawn to match a prior depiction, without Davis's knowledge or consent. Todd McFarlane, in an earlier work, takes over for the last 3 issues, and Barr continues as writer. For 2 issues, McFarlane style is muted by inkers, but the last issue has his distinctive flavor. I prefer Davis's work here, in part because McFarlane's art is sometimes confusing in what it's trying to portray and the panel flow. It's a very different take than Davis. In some panels, McFarlane seems to evoke Marshall Rogers on Batman. In others, he seems to prefigure what Norm Breyfogle would later, particularly with the exaggeratedly voluminous cape.
One of brothers bought an issue or two of Year Two when it came out, and reading it now doesn't really hold up. I remember being fascinated by the intimidating character design for the Reaper. While he gets broad strokes in character motivation, I feel like he isn't developed enough as a character. And he has a catchphrase that he repeats ad nauseum like a sitcom character seeking a cheap pop. Not very spooky or menacing. One odd subplot is when Commissioner Gordon tells Batman he's trying to quit smoking cigarettes. Batman responds by giving Gordon . . . a pipe. To be fair, I've heard that pipe smoking somehow leads to less ingestion of carcinogens. But it kinds of sucks when Gordon is trying to develop more healthy behaviors to push him to accept half-measures.
Full Circle benefits from Davis's art, but it's not as good as the first part of Year Two. It's got a bit much of the head shape issue that comes up sometimes with Davis. I don't know if it's because of how his penciling changed over time or because of the switch in inkers from Paul Neary to Mark Farmer. I like some elements of the writing and dislike others. There's a mystery of whether this Reaper is the same one who seemingly died in Year Two. It gets resolved fairly early in a way that I feel diminishes the feeling of danger.
I was underwhelmed by the celebrated Year One when I read it a few years back, so I guess I'm lukewarm on both Year One and Year Two.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,261 
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Post by Confessor on Oct 10, 2022 4:29:50 GMT -5
The Daredevil Love and War GN has some trippy abstract art from Bill Sienkiewicz and some interesting character bits about Daredevil, the Kingpin, and a couple character that just appear here. But when I write "bits" I really mean it. When you put together too prestige names (Frank Miller and Sienkiewicz) in a prestige format in an abstract style (even more than usual from Bill S.), I'm kind of waiting for some deep "comics for adults" meaning to come out of it. And it never really materializes. It gets late in the GN and I'm wondering when the "something more" is going to happen, and it's just a sort of small tale. It's got abstract art that pretty & interesting in its weirdness. It's got a crazy dude that draws upon that chaotic abstractness. It has a female character who Sienkiewicz makes pretty instead of just weird. And that's sort of it. The Batman Year Two deluxe edition reprints both the four-part arc from Detective Comics and the Batman: Full Circle one-shot that reunited Mike Barr and Alan Davis a few years later to draw upon plot threads from the earlier arc. Davis drew the first part in what marked the end of the brief Barr/Davis run in 'Tec. Davis quit the series, as noted in the HC's intro, because had the gun used by Joe Chill (a crucial element in the plot) redrawn to match a prior depiction, without Davis's knowledge or consent. Todd McFarlane, in an earlier work, takes over for the last 3 issues, and Barr continues as writer. For 2 issues, McFarlane style is muted by inkers, but the last issue has his distinctive flavor. I prefer Davis's work here, in part because McFarlane's art is sometimes confusing in what it's trying to portray and the panel flow. It's a very different take than Davis. In some panels, McFarlane seems to evoke Marshall Rogers on Batman. In others, he seems to prefigure what Norm Breyfogle would later, particularly with the exaggeratedly voluminous cape. One of brothers bought an issue or two of Year Two when it came out, and reading it now doesn't really hold up. I remember being fascinated by the intimidating character design for the Reaper. While he gets broad strokes in character motivation, I feel like he isn't developed enough as a character. And he has a catchphrase that he repeats ad nauseum like a sitcom character seeking a cheap pop. Not very spooky or menacing. One odd subplot is when Commissioner Gordon tells Batman he's trying to quit smoking cigarettes. Batman responds by giving Gordon . . . a pipe. To be fair, I've heard that pipe smoking somehow leads to less ingestion of carcinogens. But it kinds of sucks when Gordon is trying to develop more healthy behaviors to push him to accept half-measures. Full Circle benefits from Davis's art, but it's not as good as the first part of Year Two. It's got a bit much of the head shape issue that comes up sometimes with Davis. I don't know if it's because of how his penciling changed over time or because of the switch in inkers from Paul Neary to Mark Farmer. I like some elements of the writing and dislike others. There's a mystery of whether this Reaper is the same one who seemingly died in Year Two. It gets resolved fairly early in a way that I feel diminishes the feeling of danger. I was underwhelmed by the celebrated Year One when I read it a few years back, so I guess I'm lukewarm on both Year One and Year Two. I genuinely like Batman: Year One and for me it still holds up pretty well. But I felt that Year Two was a major let down: it just feels like another Batman story, nothing special like Year One was, despite the Reaper's awesome costume. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,261
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Post by Confessor on Oct 10, 2022 4:58:35 GMT -5
So, I began reading the X-Men: Dark Phoenix hardcover that I picked up a few months back last night, and read through The Uncanny X-Men #129 and #130...  I've read precious little X-Men (I've never been much of a team book fan, in all honesty), and certainly none of Chris Claremont's celebrated run. Obviously, the whole "Dark Phoenix" saga is widely regarded as a classic, and these first two issues certainly come out of the gate like gang-busters, with the first appearances of Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, and Dazzler! The basic plot is that the X-Men return to Xavier's School to find Charles Xavier himself there. The reunion isn't a particularly happy one, and there's plenty of Marvel's patented superhero angst between Professor X and Cyclops in particular. Actually, Professor X comes across as a bit of a dick here. Cerebro alerts the X-men to the presence of two new mutants who have only just recently manifested their powers (this is Kitty Pryde and Dazzler), and the team split into two to make contact with each mutant. However, the shadowy Hellfire Club, featuring the dashing Jason Wyngarde, sexy Emma Frost and the sinister Sebastian Shaw -- who seems to be the leader of the organisation -- have other plans and attempt to capture and neutralise the X-Men in order to recruit Kitty and Dazzler into their own ranks. Kitty in particular is a very likeable character, and must have been an instant hit with the small number of teenage girls who were reading The Uncanny X-Men at the time. Thinking about it, it seems to me that the makers of the original X-Men movie trilogy grafted quite a lot of Kitty Pryde's personality and character onto Rogue (as played by Anna Paquin), is that a fair assessment to make? It strikes me that there are quite a lot of strong female role models in these two issues, with the aforementioned Kitty, but also Jean Grey, Ororo, Dazzler and even Emma Frost (who is a villain at this point, of course). These two comics definitely feel much more feminist to me that your usual late 70s/early 80s Marvel fare. I like John Byrne's art in these issues a lot (Terry Austin's superb inking certainly helps). Byrne's smooth, professional lines are really appealing and he draws some great backgrounds in some of the moodier, shadowy moments of the story, with lots of detail for the reader to get lost in. Seeing Byrne's art here immediately gave me a nostalgic feeling because he frequently worked on comics I bought as a kid, including Fantastic Four, Marvel Team-Up, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, DC's post-Crisis Superman etc. All in all, these were a couple of cracking issues. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here. |
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Post by tonebone on Oct 10, 2022 10:47:06 GMT -5
I like a lot of Grant's stuff, usually when he is working within the DCU/MU, but other things as well. Still there's horrid things like The Filth. You inspired me to read this, and I really liked it! Morrison tends to do good weird or bad weird, and to me, this was good weird. It didn't really amount to a whole lot, but it was the best Morrison work I've read in a while, and that includes Flex Mentallo and All-Star Superman. I really liked Chris Weston's art. His run of JLA was some of the best straight-up superhero comics ever. |
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Post by tonebone on Oct 10, 2022 10:52:19 GMT -5
I was reading the Superman Batman Generations Omnibus today, when I came across this....  I was thinking that Alfred was looking a little less scrawny in this story, and a little more like Jarvis from the Avengers... then in the bottom left panel, Byrne mistakenly has Bruce call him Jarvis!! What really surprises me is that this is at least the 4th reprinting of this material. |
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Post by spoon on Oct 10, 2022 12:03:20 GMT -5
The Daredevil Love and War GN has some trippy abstract art from Bill Sienkiewicz and some interesting character bits about Daredevil, the Kingpin, and a couple character that just appear here. But when I write "bits" I really mean it. When you put together too prestige names (Frank Miller and Sienkiewicz) in a prestige format in an abstract style (even more than usual from Bill S.), I'm kind of waiting for some deep "comics for adults" meaning to come out of it. And it never really materializes. It gets late in the GN and I'm wondering when the "something more" is going to happen, and it's just a sort of small tale. It's got abstract art that pretty & interesting in its weirdness. It's got a crazy dude that draws upon that chaotic abstractness. It has a female character who Sienkiewicz makes pretty instead of just weird. And that's sort of it. The Batman Year Two deluxe edition reprints both the four-part arc from Detective Comics and the Batman: Full Circle one-shot that reunited Mike Barr and Alan Davis a few years later to draw upon plot threads from the earlier arc. Davis drew the first part in what marked the end of the brief Barr/Davis run in 'Tec. Davis quit the series, as noted in the HC's intro, because had the gun used by Joe Chill (a crucial element in the plot) redrawn to match a prior depiction, without Davis's knowledge or consent. Todd McFarlane, in an earlier work, takes over for the last 3 issues, and Barr continues as writer. For 2 issues, McFarlane style is muted by inkers, but the last issue has his distinctive flavor. I prefer Davis's work here, in part because McFarlane's art is sometimes confusing in what it's trying to portray and the panel flow. It's a very different take than Davis. In some panels, McFarlane seems to evoke Marshall Rogers on Batman. In others, he seems to prefigure what Norm Breyfogle would later, particularly with the exaggeratedly voluminous cape. One of brothers bought an issue or two of Year Two when it came out, and reading it now doesn't really hold up. I remember being fascinated by the intimidating character design for the Reaper. While he gets broad strokes in character motivation, I feel like he isn't developed enough as a character. And he has a catchphrase that he repeats ad nauseum like a sitcom character seeking a cheap pop. Not very spooky or menacing. One odd subplot is when Commissioner Gordon tells Batman he's trying to quit smoking cigarettes. Batman responds by giving Gordon . . . a pipe. To be fair, I've heard that pipe smoking somehow leads to less ingestion of carcinogens. But it kinds of sucks when Gordon is trying to develop more healthy behaviors to push him to accept half-measures. Full Circle benefits from Davis's art, but it's not as good as the first part of Year Two. It's got a bit much of the head shape issue that comes up sometimes with Davis. I don't know if it's because of how his penciling changed over time or because of the switch in inkers from Paul Neary to Mark Farmer. I like some elements of the writing and dislike others. There's a mystery of whether this Reaper is the same one who seemingly died in Year Two. It gets resolved fairly early in a way that I feel diminishes the feeling of danger. I was underwhelmed by the celebrated Year One when I read it a few years back, so I guess I'm lukewarm on both Year One and Year Two. I genuinely like Batman: Year One and for me it still holds up pretty well. But I felt that Year Two was a major let down: it just feels like another Batman story, nothing special like Year One was, despite the Reaper's awesome costume. I know what you mean about Year Two. It doesn't feel like a foundational story. It's another story with some inconsequential tidbits thrown to give the perception of foundational. This is when Gordon started smoking a pipe. This explains why Batman would wield a gun in some early Batman story. Here's the Bat-Signal. It's been a few years since I read Year One, but my recollection is that it activated my pet peeve for grittiness that gets overweighted so the story is unrealistic. In other words, it messed up the balance between the grandiosity and opulence of Gotham and it's dark underbelly. It made Gotham seem like such a crime-ridden cesspool that it should rapidly hemorrhaging population and becoming a third-rate city. There should be very few rich people or museums or other opulent locales to rob. I have a similar gripe about the Nolan Batman movies. |
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Post by spoon on Oct 10, 2022 12:34:49 GMT -5
So, I began reading the X-Men: Dark Phoenix hardcover that I picked up a few months back last night, and read through The Uncanny X-Men #129 and #130... I've read precious little X-Men (I've never been much of a team book fan, in all honesty), and certainly none of Chris Claremont's celebrated run. Obviously, the whole "Dark Phoenix" saga is widely regarded as a classic, and these first two issues certainly come out of the gate like gang-busters, with the first appearances of Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, and Dazzler! The basic plot is that the X-Men return to Xavier's School to find Charles Xavier himself there. The reunion isn't a particularly happy one, and there's plenty of Marvel's patented superhero angst between Professor X and Cyclops in particular. Actually, Professor X comes across as a bit of a dick here. I'd say that this in line with harshness Professor X sometimes displaced in the Silver Age, so not all surprising to see at this point with Bronze Age Xavier. He does seem to mellow with age though and act less like this over time. It's a bit ironic that Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier was generally a nice, soft-spoken guy when I feel like he would be closer to the source material if Stewark had injected at least a little bit more Picard into his protrayal. Yes, I think that's right on target. One of Kitty's function is the normal kid/newbie/surrogate for the reader thrown into the mix. In the movies, Rogue is doing much more of that Kitty role than staying true to her comic book version. That's not to say that's there absolutely zero of that in comic book Rogue, but she's a much different character with oftentimes a lot of bravado and early appearances as a villain. Yes, definitely a Claremont/X-Men trademark. When so many teams have just one token female member, he upped the presence of women in the book, whether as team members, villains, or supporting cast. Eventually, there's 50/50 parity on the roster, and I think at times even a majority of members. At times, the characterization of female characters is a bit off, but generally it's a good thing. [qoute]I like John Byrne's art in these issues a lot (Terry Austin's superb inking certainly helps). Byrne's smooth, professional lines are really appealing and he draws some great backgrounds in some of the moodier, shadowy moments of the story, with lots of detail for the reader to get lost in. Seeing Byrne's art here immediately gave me a nostalgic feeling because he frequently worked on comics I bought as a kid, including Fantastic Four, Marvel Team-Up, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, DC's post-Crisis Superman etc. All in all, these were a couple of cracking issues. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.[/quote] Byrne really does some creative brilliant work. I'm glad you'll keep going. There's a reason the Claremont X-Men is an all-time classic of the super-hero genre. I know various people drop off in their enthusiasm/reading history at various points, but there are years where the positive consensus is pretty strong. I'm a fan of pretty much the whole Claremont run. Periods/issues where I'm less enthusiastic are more of a case of good elements and bad elements co-existing at the same time rather than just being bad. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 10, 2022 13:27:26 GMT -5
I was reading the Superman Batman Generations Omnibus today, when I came across this.... I was thinking that Alfred was looking a little less scrawny in this story, and a little more like Jarvis from the Avengers... then in the bottom left panel, Byrne mistakenly has Bruce call him Jarvis!! What really surprises me is that this is at least the 4th reprinting of this material. That's not a mistake. That isn't Alfred, it's his father, Jarvis Pennyworth. Byrne is loosely following Silver/Bronze Age continuity, where Jarvis was the Wayne family butler at the time of Thomas and Matha's murders. Alfred didn't join the household until a year or two after Bruce became Dick's legal guardian.
Cei-U! I summon the family business!
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Post by tonebone on Oct 10, 2022 13:32:10 GMT -5
I was reading the Superman Batman Generations Omnibus today, when I came across this.... I was thinking that Alfred was looking a little less scrawny in this story, and a little more like Jarvis from the Avengers... then in the bottom left panel, Byrne mistakenly has Bruce call him Jarvis!! What really surprises me is that this is at least the 4th reprinting of this material. That's not a mistake. That isn't Alfred, it's his father, Jarvis Pennyworth. Byrne is loosely following Silver/Bronze Age continuity, where Jarvis was the Wayne family butler at the time of Thomas and Matha's murders. Alfred didn't join the household until a year or two after Bruce became Dick's legal guardian.
Cei-U! I summon the family business!
OH MY GOSH! Yes, I remember that being covered earlier! I really enjoy Byrne's Generations stuff, but it is a mite confusing when he constantly backtracks and tells other stories from the same time periods he's already covered! Thanks for pointing this out! It was driving me crazy! I guess there's only a limited pool of butler names (Alfred, Jarvis, Jeeves, etc.)  |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 12, 2022 4:18:40 GMT -5
Finishing up the second X-Men omnibus. It's not hard to see why this was Marvel's worst-selling title at the time. Roy Thomas and Arnold Drake do their best to emulate Stan's bombastic melodrama but no one can do Stan but the Man! Most of the art is really mediocre. Dan Adkins does a single issue that looks way better than the issues that surround it, particularly with regard to characters' faces. (I have a Doctor Strange fill-in that is also by Adkins; did he ever do a continuous run on a book?) Later there is a bit of Steranko and of course Neal Adams short but famous run. There is one issue by Don Heck where he emulates Adams' more modern style and it looks great! I wonder if he continued in that vein elsewhere or went back to his usual style. The stories don't always make sense and they play fast & loose with characters' abilities, particularly ephemeral ones like psychics and magic. At one point Juggernaut emits energy spheres from his body. Pretty sure we never saw that again. Professor X can communicate telepathically with robots, use "psychic bolts" to physical effect, go into astral form a la Strange, and "share" his power with others such as Jean and Changeling. He's also pretty blasé about wiping people's memories, even entire towns, to protect their identities. No problem there. Speaking of Changeling, I thought it was odd that he didn't change into anything in the entire drawn-out story arc where he was introduced. It's not until the retcon where he is to have impersonated Xavier that we see him change form. And why were they called Factor Three anyway? Having Jean be in on the hoax of Xavier's death doesn't work because we saw numerous thought balloons in previous issues where she mourned him. Thought the Z'nox story would be longer, given its scope, but it wraps up quickly. The reveal of Scott as Eric the Red makes no sense and I still don't understand the connection between Alex Summers and the Living Pharaoh. So, some of it was good, a lot of it was a drag, but I'm glad I filled in a hole in my reading. There are a lot of key issues in here, including the first appearances of Polaris, Havok, Mesmero, Sunfire, Sauron, Living Pharaoh/Monolith, Sentinels Mark II, and the Savage Land Mutates. **1/2 That period has some of the worst stories of the Marvel Silver Age. No wonder they "cancelled", even after Adams. |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 12, 2022 4:23:00 GMT -5
Am I the only one who doesn't find Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss all that scandalous? I'm aware from the pages of Omaha the Cat Dancer that there were some crazy censorship battles going on in the late 80s, but in the internet age it barely raises an eyebrow. I wouldn't call it Chaykin's best work, but it's a decent read. Not scandalous to us European readers. It was published by someone who didn't usually go with American comics, though. |
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