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Post by Batflunkie on Jan 30, 2023 11:06:11 GMT -5
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Post by kirby101 on Jan 30, 2023 11:18:28 GMT -5
Interesting telling of an unknown history. I've seen better Pollard art.
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Post by MDG on Jan 30, 2023 11:22:08 GMT -5
Interesting telling of an unknown history. I've seen better Pollard art. I was just gonna say. Kirby drawing a scene like this, it would feel "big." |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,190 
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Post by Confessor on Jan 30, 2023 17:36:20 GMT -5
I re-read the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century – 1910 the other night...  This comic presents us with a new incarnation of the League, although old favourites Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain are both still present and accounted for. Joining them are Orlando (an immortal from Virginia Woolf's book Orlando: A Biography, who is able to take on male and female characteristics), Thomas Carnacki (an occult detective originally created by English fantasy author William Hope Hodgson), and A. J. Raffles (a gentleman thief from the pen of E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Century – 1910 is the first part of a trilogy of books which tells an epic story spanning almost 100 years, with a second volume continuing the tale in the late Sixties and a third being set in 2009. The new League sets out on a mission to discover what is causing Carnacki to have frightening and seemingly prophetic dreams of an impending apocalypse. This in turn leads them to occultist Oliver Haddo – who is a thinly-veiled caricature of Aleister Crowley originating from (so Wikipedia tells me) the novel The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham – and they soon become embroiled in a tale of occultists trying to usher in the birth of a magical Antichrist child. Meanwhile, Captain Nemo is on his deathbed and asks his daughter Janni Dakkar to continue his work and take his place as captain of the Nautilus. Janni rejects her birthright and runs away to the squalid, lawless London docklands, where she gets a job as a serving wench in a seedy tavern. Things go from bad to worse when she is gang-raped by a number of patrons, which makes her realise that she must accept her destiny, after which she signals the Nautilus and her crew (luckily, they are moored in the Thames Estuary) and carnage ensues, with the pirates and the submarine's weapons making mincemeat of not only the offending rapists, but the rest of the population of the docklands waterfront too! Trouble is, Janni's rape seems like a lazy plot contrivance, although I do accept that it was probably an all-too-common occurrence on the sleazy Edwardian Thames waterfront of the time. Of course, I'm well aware of the accusations made towards Alan Moore about the frequent use of rape in his stories, but usually I don't have much of a problem with it because it invariably feels uncontrived. This time, however, it does feel a bit lazy. Like the gang-rape is nothing more than something needed to push Janni into accepting her destiny as her father's successor. Obviously this part of Century is setting up a lot of stuff for the later Nemo trilogy. However, perhaps the biggest problem I have with Century – 1910 is that this new version of the League is a lot less interesting than the classic line-up we saw in Volumes 1 and 2. In particular, Orlando plays a pretty big role in the League for the first time (although we learned a lot about him in the Black Dossier), but he is both ineffectual and quite annoying. Carnacki and Raffles too are both rather dull, unmemorable characters. Something else that kinda rubbed me up the wrong way is that Brecht & Weill's Threepenny Opera is a huge influence on this book and much of its dialogue, with Moore turning a fair bit of the adventure into musical numbers, with characters singing the dialogue. It's not like I hated this narrative device, but I'm really not much of a fan of musicals or opera – even light opera – so all the singing kind of annoyed me. All in all though, this was still an entertaining read. Even flawed Alan Moore is a damn-sight better than most comic book writers, I guess. As usual, Kevin O'Neill's artwork is fantastic, with his visceral, energetic style beautifully capturing the grittiness of turn-of-the-century London. This book sets up lots of stuff that we will see play out in the following two instalments of Century, which somewhat undermines it as a stand alone read. Nevertheless, this is still a cracking slice of Edwardian Gothic horror, which, like the previous books in the series, is chock full of Easter eggs and half-hidden references for the eagle-eyed reader to spot. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 31, 2023 9:56:57 GMT -5
Reading Young Justice on Hoopla (1st trade).. I've read it in bits before, but never got over my unreasonable hatred of Tim Drake to read more. THe book isn't making me like him any more, but it is a pretty good book.. I do like PAD when he's not taking himself too seriously. Some great bad puns in there.
It was a bit jarring to have the first mystery the team solved to be about the Beatles, like they lived through them (Even if you go by the post zero hour time frame, it's unlikely any of them were born before John Lennon died) but I got it, so I guess I'll give a pass for that one.
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Post by Ozymandias on Feb 1, 2023 1:39:54 GMT -5
Although I first started reading Spidey when Andru was the artist and so imprinted on him, I must concede that Romita was a tough act to follow (as was Kane). But Russ was a very good comic-book artist, and when he drew the Spidey characters they looked like themselves. Peter Parker was not "Generic Brown-Haired Guy" and Mary Jane wasn't "Generic Redhead". Russ could have drawn Pete with a shaven head or MJ with a blonde wig and we'd still have recognized them. He may not have been very flashy, but he made things look real. That scene in which Pete visits his new apartment gave us the impression the place really existed! (Perhaps it did, for all I know!) That apartment is Conway's best creation. But was it him or the artist who made it a point of reference for so many years? May's house never had a definite layout and look, but Chelsea's apartment remained constant trough different artists. So my guess would be: editorial oversight. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 1, 2023 7:05:48 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Captain Nemo is on his deathbed and asks his daughter Janni Dakkar to continue his work and take his place as captain of the Nautilus. Janni rejects her birthright and runs away to the squalid, lawless London docklands, where she gets a job as a serving wench in a seedy tavern. (...) Trouble is, Janni's rape seems like a lazy plot contrivance, although I do accept that it was probably an all-too-common occurrence on the sleazy Edwardian Thames waterfront of the time. Of course, I'm well aware of the accusations made towards Alan Moore about the frequent use of rape in his stories, but usually I don't have much of a problem with it because it invariably feels uncontrived. This time, however, it does feel a bit lazy. I had exactly the same reaction. It's as if in Writing Edgy Comics for Dummies, a chapter says that any female character has to be abused to become strong. Here it is not only distasteful; it's also very gratuitous and even hard to explain, character-wise... Janni is amazingly strong, proud, 8ntelligent and resourceful;if she wanted to step away from the Nemo legacy, why would she settle for a job as a scullery maid? There was any number of other jobs that would have been safer, better paying and more satisfying. The only explanation I could find at the time is that Janni suffered from a bad case of self-hatred, but that is not otherwise suggested by the story. Yes, it felt like a lazy plot device. For the life of me I don't understand why Moore liked using Orlando so much. Boring, boring, boring. I usually feel the same way, but the entire Century trilogy was a big let-down for me. Even the Harry Potter spoof fell flat, and I usually enjoy works that make fun of Harry Potter. The further adventures of Janni Nemo were also pretty forgettable. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 1, 2023 11:23:29 GMT -5
I’m still reading the Avengers. I’m up to #52.
It’s a totally different comic from what it was a few issues previously!
Wanda and Pietro have run off with Magneto. Hercules has gone back to Olympus. Captain America has left the Avengers and he’s sent the Black Panther to take his place.
For a few issues, the regular membership was down to three - Wasp, Goliath and Hawkeye. They were captured by the Collector in #51, and he had already harvested Thor, so the thunder god was able to join in after he snapped out of his trance.
The inker on #52 is Vince Colletta. He’s pretty good here. I’ve been familiar with this story since the 1970s when it was reprinted in Marvel Treasury Edition #7, and this is the first time I noticed that Colletta was the inker. I don’t remember ever thinking that the art in #52 looked bad.
I sure wish they had done more with the Black Widow in this period. After the Red Guardian storyline, she shows up for a few panels here and there, recovering in the hospital, announcing she’s giving up super-heroing, being Hawkeye’s girlfriend. In #52, she freaks out because she thinks Hawkeye is dead. She collapses in Jasper Sitwell’s arms when she should be putting on the suit and finding the real killer.
Still, this is a great period for the Avengers. Coming up, we have Ultron, the return of the Masters of Evil, the Vision, Yellowjacket, and Hawkeye taking on the Goliath role.
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Post by spoon on Feb 1, 2023 20:32:25 GMT -5
I read the New Mutants Annual #1, New Mutants #22-25, and Uncanny X-Men #189-192. I also read The Huntress #1-6, 9-10 from the series that introduced the post-Crisis Huntress.
Continuing my New Mutants binge, first I read the annual. Bob McLeod returns to handle the art, and the kids meet rockstar Lila Cheney. She takes a shine to Sam, but also turns out to be a cosmic-level teleporter. But we get two examples of Claremont’s tendency to glamorize jerky behavior. Lila tries to “steal” the Earth, but is treated like a charming rogue because she’s a rock chick. Also, Stevie Hunter mocks Dani for tearing up during rehab on her legs. Claremont tries to portray Stevie as a tough but fair dispenser of lessons. The context doesn’t support that. Dani is mildly cranky about her pain and tough recovery, but Stevie treats it like a massive fit. And Stevie has the gall to compare her knee injury to Dani almost dying at the hands of the Demon Bear (only saved by the Morlock Healer). Doug Ramsey manages to save day, but it’s unclear what his role on the team is, because I don’t think he shows up elsewhere in this batch of reading. I read Annual #1 at that point based on one of the chronologies online, but maybe it’s better placed after #25, because the kids mention Warlock behaving in a way he hasn’t before, but he just showed up in #21.
New Mutants #22-25 is an arc that follows up on MTU Annual #6, but having Sunspot and Wolfsbane take on the power of Cloak & Dagger (but in a traumatically uncontrolled fashion) as a delayed side effects of C&D previously attempting to cure them of the drug experiment in the prior story. The artistic highlight is a depiction of a story Rahne is telling in the style of Disney animation. The story is pretty good, although drawn longer than necessary. Oddly, the only New Mutant beyond the original roster in this arc is Magik, but she gets a chance to shine after a bit of insubordination. These issues have pin-ups of the team, and I think Dani’s pin-up in #22 is the first time she’s called by the codename Mirage. She started out codenamed Psyche, but after a few issues that name had basically disappeared. I believe she’s only been called by her real name for several issues leading up to this. Also, we have a Hellfire Club subplot with both Roberto’s dad and Selene seeking to join the Inner Circle. I believe Selene arrived in New York in the pages of X-Men and she meets Friedrich von Roehm, a club member and disciple of the legend of Selene.
I read Uncanny X-Men #189 because it features Amara (Magma) and Rachel Summers out on the town. They have a battle with Selene at the Hellfire Club, but when the X-Men come to the rescue it ends in a draw. Uncanny #190-191 is the Kulan Gath, but having never read these 3 back-to-back before, I didn’t realize how much #189 sets up the characters. For instance, when Kulan Gath transforms Manhattan to his kingdom, Illyana is with the X-Men and Amara is separated from the rest of the kids. It’s a memorable, suspenseful, harrowing tale, albeit with some disturbing torture. But always that ends with a spell that turns back time to undo the horror.
Uncanny #192 has tangential New Mutants content via a scene with Illyana (she hangs out with the adult team quite a bit) and Warlock’s dad Magus arriving on Earth as the issue’s villain. Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Colossus are the main focus of the issue. I love the dynamic between them. It’s a great example of how I enjoy the other team members more than Claremont’s faves Wolverine and Storm. It’s a great issue that also gives us the return of Kitty and Wolverine from Japan and some more of Rachel’s backstory. The one “bad Claremont” moment is when the rest of the X-Men show up after the battle. Storm raises some questions about why Magus discontinued the fight despite his seemingly great power. Nightcrawler poses a follow-up question to Storm based on her comments, and she snots back that he’s the leader so he should tell her the answer. A good leader tries to get different points of view, so Storm is just being a jerk. By the way, having lost her powers, Storm left the team to travel to Africa by ship in #189. However, Kulan Gath’s action disrupted the voyage shortly after and Storm swam back to shore in #190. So apparently she delayed her trip, but I know she departs again within the next few issues.
I bought the Huntress issues off ebay a few years back. I figure I’d try it because I like Staton’s work on Green Lantern and some pre-Crisis Huntress back-ups in Wonder Woman. These stories written by Joey Cavalieri were only so-so. Helena Bertinelli becomes Huntress to avenge her mobster father. I think there are fleeting mentions of heroic aspirations, but it seems basically like a personal quest that I can’t get into. A lot of the shading looks like Zip-A-Tone, but per the letters page, it’s apparently an effect of the artboards Staton was drawing on. There’s some disturbing violence indirectly described. The highlight of these issues is probably a subplot in #4 when a girl learns painfully to grow past her infatuation with a gang member.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 1, 2023 20:42:47 GMT -5
I am up to Avengers #54. This is one of my favorite versions of the Masters of Evil. But, wow, this subplot with Jarvis betraying the Avengers is so dang dumb.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 1, 2023 21:32:17 GMT -5
I just finished Avengers #55. It’s been a while since I read the two-part story that introduced Ultron. It’s always been one of my favorites.
I’d forgotten how very little of it makes any sense at all.
It remains one of my favorites anyway. I have a soft spot for all these B-list and C-list villains banding together to take out the Avengers. They couldn’t even handle the Wasp, Hawkeye, Goliath and the Black Panther. What would they do if Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk or Hercules was still around?
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Post by spoon on Feb 1, 2023 23:51:10 GMT -5
One thing I forgot to mention about my New Mutants reading is the ambiguity about whether there's a team leader and if so who it is. There were references, first to Karma in her brief initial stint, and then to Sam and Dani, as people teammates look to as the oldest members of the team. But it's seems more like an informal recognition or age rather than an official role. Then, there are some periodic references to leadership to either Sam or more often Dani, but they've been ambiguous. Like Dani will say something like, "If the others are to look to me as leader . . . " which could mean that she is the leader or just that she aspires to be. But in one of the issues from the Cloak & Dagger arc, I believe there was a caption that explicitly stated Dani and Sam were co-leaders.
It might seem weird that Claremont won't just be direct, but maybe that's because technically the New Mutants are just supposed to be a class of students and not a super-hero team at this point. It reminds me of when I was binge-reading Excalibur, and it took a while for Claremont to note explicitly that Nightcrawler was leader. And then the mentions were so infrequent that some guest writer (maybe Terry Kavanaugh) had Captain Britain refer to himself as team leader.
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Post by Cei-U! on Feb 2, 2023 6:43:27 GMT -5
A lot of the shading looks like Zip-A-Tone, but per the letters page, it’s apparently an effect of the artboards Staton was drawing on. That would be a type of illustration board called DuoTone (and other brand names). It comes with two different shading patterns printed on it that can only be seen when you use a brush to apply a pair of (noxiously stinky) developing fluids on it, one for each pattern. This gives you three different shading options (for the third you apply both developers). It's what Roy Crane used on his classic comic strips Wash Tubbs and Buz Sawyer to achieve his often breathtaking shading effects.
Cei-U! [off-key singing] The more you know... [/off-key singing]
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2023 7:00:38 GMT -5
I’ve re-read Scorpion’s first appearance, in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #19.
It’s impossible to forgive Jameson for his part in the creation of the Scorpion. Motivated by an irrational hatred of Spidey, it unleashed a menace on the world - and it’s hard to forgive Jameson for the circumstances that led to the death of Farley Stillwell.
How can one forgive that?
Jameson is a great character, but the death of Stillwell should have led to him owning up and resigning as editor.
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Post by Cei-U! on Feb 2, 2023 8:22:00 GMT -5
I’ve re-read Scorpion’s first appearance, in 1964’s The Amazing Spider-Man #19. It’s impossible to forgive Jameson for his part in the creation of the Scorpion. Motivated by an irrational hatred of Spidey, it unleashed a menace on the world - and it’s hard to forgive Jameson for the circumstances that led to the death of Farley Stillwell. How can one forgive that? Jameson is a great character, but the death of Stillwell should have led to him owning up and resigning as editor. His role in the creation of the Scorpion would haunt Jameson (who was the owner and publisher, not the editor, of the Bugle) for years to come, most notably in Amazing Spidey Annual #18 when Scorpion attempted to kill Marla Madison on her and JJJ's wedding day (a clever and appropriate nod to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein).
Cei-U! I summon the consequences!
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