|
|
Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2023 19:07:42 GMT -5
Outside editorial fiefdoms, though, like real life, they only got together at weddings and funerals...
That's the thing, if they weren't interacting with one another, you wouldn't know they coexisted in the same planet, unlike the panel I posted. That's the basis of the shared universe. But that panel doesn't show those heroes "interacting;" it's a montage of three separate scenes. Now, here's a a panel from Justice League from 1961 in which they are interacting as they discuss adding a new member. They seem to know enough about three other heroes to consider them JLA-worthy.  |
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 15, 2023 19:30:20 GMT -5
Reading through 75 years of Shazam! I am surprised at the # of Golden Age stories I have read before. I'm still kind of miffed that DC didn't try and go whole hog on Shazam! being a modest success and try and do a Golden Age Omnibus |
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on May 16, 2023 6:03:28 GMT -5
Ka-Zar the Savage #5, in which Tongah dies! (In a flashback scene, too!) I was really taken aback. I could have sworn we had seen Tongah several times since then. Holy Mandela effect, Batman! I've been living a lie for 40 years! 
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on May 16, 2023 6:21:55 GMT -5
I feel like Professor X is the early glue of Marvel's Silver Age.. he's always checking in with the FF or the Avengers.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,190 
|
Post by Confessor on May 17, 2023 10:22:43 GMT -5
So, I finished my re-read of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with the final instalment, The Tempest – though in this case it was a first time read, rather than a re-read (and yeah, I know that this doesn't really count as a "classic comic", but...whatever...sue me!).  The first things to say about the TPB version of The Tempest is just how horrible the reproduction of the artwork is! It's really "fuzzy" and sort of pixilated – like someone has mistakenly scanned Kevin O'Neill's artwork in at 72dpi resolution instead of the standard 300dpi. Have a look at these samples and you'll see what I mean...   Yuck! It's by far the worst art reproduction I've ever seen in a professionally published comic book. It really is very poor and, I must say, it did detract from my enjoyment of the book a little – especially because savouring and scrutinising O'Neill's artwork is one of the chief attractions of the series. Apparently, this fault is only found in the softcover TPB edition: the hard cover and six individual comic issues are all OK. Anyway, moving on from the art quality, The Tempest is intended to be the conclusion of the whole League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga, as well as Moore's last major work in comics – and with O'Neill's death in 2022, the former seems certain to be the case. Named after the final play Shakespeare wrote on his own, it is – like its namesake – a fantastical comedy about betrayal, magic, and revenge, while also serving as a swan-song for its creator(s). I won't give away any spoilers, but the plot mostly takes place in the early 2010s and revolves around Mina Murray, Orlando, Emma Night and Jack Nemo (the great-grandson of the original Captain Nemo), facing off against a rejuvenated "Jimmy" Bond and a plotting Prospero, before teaming with several former members of the Seven Stars (a British superhero team), as war rages across the Moon, Venus, and Mars. Given that this is supposed to be Moore's last ever comics work, it's perhaps unsurprising that The Tempest functions as a brilliant, often affectionate and frequently hilarious deconstruction of old British comics of the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s. So much so, in fact, that I wonder if a lot of the in-jokes and lampooning of British comic traditions might just fly over the heads of your average American reader? Of course, being Alan Moore, this sometimes affectionate "love letter" is filtered through the author's curmudgeonly irritation with the comics industry in general and its attendant multi-million dollar cinematic spin-offs. He even goes so far as to include a series of essays celebrating British comics stalwarts such as Leo Baxendale, Ken Reid, and Frank Bellamy, while giving the publishers who swindled them out of money and their creations a severe ticking off! As is usual with the comics in this series, Moore and O'Neill plunder a wealth of different sources, with Easter eggs, in-jokes and cameos a-plenty. Elements as diverse as Minnie the Minx, Dracula, Dan Dare, The Terminator, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Fantastic Four Annual #3, Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", James Bond, The Avengers TV Series, The First Men in the Moon, Oor Wullie, Planet of the Apes, and even Newcastle upon Tyne mining folklore – to name just a few examples! – are all blended into a cohesive narrative whole. There are also note-perfect pastiches of The Beano, British romance photo comics, newspaper adventure strips, and 2000 AD in O'Neill's artwork. Despite its dense literary content and dizzying array of art styles, The Tempest is probably the most enjoyable instalment of the series since the first two volumes. But it's also quite a different beast to the Victorian pastiche of those earlier volumes – and not just because of its modern day setting. It's more knowing in its assimilation of fictional references, somehow...more self-concious of its "clever-clever" deconstruction of the comic book medium, and more navel-gazing as a result. It's also by far the funniest book in the series: I've never before properly laughed and chuckled while reading a LoEG book like I did with The Tempest. All in all, it's a pretty satisfying end to the series, but also one devoid of much in the way of a narrative crescendo or really any sense of it being a last hurrah. In fact, there at least four different endings – or maybe there's just one ending and the others are epilogues or afterwords? But as the catastrophic events foretold in Century – 1910 finally come to fruition, our central cast of characters function less like protagonists and more like spectators to the unfolding cataclysm. I enjoyed The Tempest more than any of the other books in the series since Volume 2. I'm not sure it's terribly "new reader friendly", but if you know the series and have enjoyed preceding volumes, you're in for a real treat with this book. It's further proof, as if any were needed, that Alan Moore is one of the best and cleverest writers England has ever produced, comics-based or otherwise. |
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on May 17, 2023 10:48:17 GMT -5
I read Tempest when it first came out, and I remember really liking it. But that’s been three or four years ago and I haven’t read it since. I don’t really remember specifically what I liked about it.
I’ll have to dig it out of the long boxes and read it when I’m taking a break from the TBATB reviews.
|
|
|
|
Post by spoon on May 19, 2023 21:15:18 GMT -5
I read New Mutants #81-85, then New Mutants Annual #5, then back to New Mutants #86.
NM #81 is an inventory story with a contemporary framing sequence drawn by Terry Shoemaker featuring Magma and Empath in South America that interrupts the Asgard arc. The core story is a flashback to Amara’s time at Xavier’s school. Karma is on the roster, so it has to take place before NM #54. The kids see a B-movie with demigod/Avenger Hercules playing himself. Everyone thinks it’s hilarious except Amara, who thinks it makes a mockery of her beliefs. When they get home, Amara prays to Jupiter and Hercules shows up in answer to her prayers. The kids all believe the Avenger part, but no one (especially not Amara) believes the demigod part. This is just some jerk who’s co-opted the name. The kids test Hercules’s powers and Amara reluctantly agrees to accompany the big phone back to Manhattan. After some hijinks and an amazing rescue, Amara finally realizes Hercules it the real deal and it rekindles her faith. It’s a great story that reminds me of what Claremont brought to the series and how entertaining Hercules is when he’s well-written.
The Asgard story resumes with art by Blevins/Williamson (#82), just Blevins (#83), Shoemaker/Milgrom (#84), and Isherwood/Blevins. The team is split in two with Boom Boom & Warlock (plus the Asgardian wolf prince Hrimhari) seeking help from the Warriors Three and other allies, while the rest of the team tries to escape from Hela. Being in the smaller group, Boom Boom gets a lot of spotlight and really seems like Louise Simonson’s new favorite. One of her pant legs gets shredded and Blevins really keeps that wardrobe continuity intact.
Hela’s big plan is to have Eitri forge a magical sword which demon-ified Danielle Moonstar will use to slay Odin in the midst of his Odin-Sleep. Louise Simonson really digs into her husband Walt’s Asgardian bailiwick as we get an Endgame style assemblage of forces from Asgard and associated realms (minus Thor) pitted against Hela’s army. The New Mutants and company win the day, as the destruction of the sword unleashes magic that undoes Hela’s spell. Dani looked pretty thin as Hela’s corrupted fiery corpse-like minion, but she looks even more emaciated when restored to humanity. She collapsing, seemingly in no shape to do any New Mutant-ing. The Bret Blevins swan song occurs in this arc. The Blevins/Austin pairing didn’t really work, but once other inkers came on, I really like how the Blevins art looking. I just wish that happened sooner.
Meanwhile, Rusty and Skids are in prison where Freedom Force brought them. In an Acts of Vengeance story, the Vulture escapes from the clink with the goal to free Nitro from a little can they put him into so he won’t blow up in court. Rusty and Skids break out of prison to try to apprehend the Vulture. But that’ll wait until NM #86.
I thought this would be the place for Annual #5 (but probably not because it turns out the kids are still in Asgard during #86). The main story from Louise Simonson and the art team of Rob Liefeld and Tim Dzon is part of Atlantis Attacks. The kids, apparently returning from Asgard are attacked by Namorita and some totally forgettable, poorly drawn Atlantean mutants. That’s because Namorita was attacked by three Deviants who just happen to resemble three of the New Mutants. She thinks they want to steal the horn from NM #76. The misunderstanding is solved in time for the kids and Atlanteans to defeat a monster summoned by Ghaur with the horn. Liefeld art is hideous. The anatomy is terrible. I think inkers can help though, because the Liefeld/Milgrom combo on X-Factor #40 looked much better. The third story is part of a series on the Serpent Crown backstory. We also get a two pages of Liefeld pin-ups of the former members, which sadly places Dani in that category, convalescing in Asgard. The highlight of the annual is the second story, where Boom Boom breaks the fourth wall to ask penciler Jon Bogdanove to draw her some cute Marvel guys to date. It’s written by Judith Kurzer Bogdanove (Jon’s wife), so maybe it’s the editor or fan letters driving Boom Boom’s rise rather than just Weezie. The script ranges from cute to cringey. Bogdanove’s art can look bad at times, but this pairing with inker Hilary Barta looks fantastic.
The Vulture/Skids/Rusty subplot takes center-stage in #86. It turns out some Acts of Vengeance mastermind has hired the Tinkerer to spring the Vulture to attack Speedball. But in some metafictional commentary, Vulture thinks that job is too lame and he’d rather free Nitro to blow a bunch of people up. Also, Speedball’s series was recently cancelled, so there’s really no place for him to be an AOV target. Skids has taken a dark turn and wants to abandon humans to the carnage Nitro will unleash, but Rusty convince her to try to stop the Vulture’s plot which will also boost his reputation as a criminal defendant awaiting trial. Skids’s deflector shield just barely foils Nitro, but knocks her out. There’s a little plot thread about Nitro’s rights being infringed when he’s in a can and can’t participate in his defense in court that I found funny and interesting. Freedom Force (in spite of having two members killed off in Uncanny) recaptures Rusty and Skids, while inventing a story that blames the Vulture’s plot on them and foils their hard work. Liefeld is now the new penciler. The quality varies widely from page to page, but the bad is pretty bad. Meanwhile, the kids are still in Asgard because it’s lost in the Negative Zone due to events in the pages of Thor. But at least Dani is back in her old school Valkyrie gear and standing upright. The last couple pages depict the first appearance of the Mutant Liberation Front blowing a government research facility, an individual (presumably Stryfe) phoning in a demanding that Rusty and Skids be released or more terrorist attacks will occur. The final panel is Cable’s head and shoulders, with a promise that this new character will fight terrorists and change the lives of the kids. The Liefeld-ization of New Mutants has begun.
The New Mutants have been swapping mentors. This era under the wing of X-Factor seems so short, probably because the senior team was in space for most of it. They had some time together on Ship, mostly in the pages of X-Factor. Then, X-Factor was off on their Judgment War arc, which led to more unsupervised calamity with Dani and Asgard. Now, they're getting Cable.
|
|
|
|
Post by spoon on May 20, 2023 22:12:51 GMT -5
I read New Mutants #87-89.
I incorrectly assumed in my previous post that the X-Factor supervision era had ended with #86. It turns out the New Mutants reunite with X-Factor on its ship in #88, and they don't even meet Cable until #89. At first, Cable's connection to the storyline is that he's combating the Mutant Liberation Front, which is trying to rescue/kidnap Rusty and Skids, who Freedom Force has taken into custody. The MLF succeeds in their mission, which continues the pattern of Rusty and Skids barely participating in New Mutants missions. In contrast, Boom Boom and Rictor continue to play significant roles on their new team. After very slight hints that Rahne might be into Doug and then bigger hints about Sam, the Rahne carousel continues as it suggests she and Rictor may have mutuals crushes. Or at least, he pays enough attention to her to make Boom Boom jealous. But isn't Boom Boom into Sam? Well, she's a disrupter who has crushes on whomever will pay attention and give her a chance to act out. It's remarkable, though, that after hints early on in the series about crushes, there's be so little intra-team romance during this series about a teen super-hero team.
Freedom Force seems to be getting the Magneto treatment. Magneto seemingly turned back to his villainous ways to cap off his time as headmaster. Now, Freedom Force, after seemingly growing into a more heroic direction during the Fall of the Mutants and their defense of Muir Island from the Reavers, now seem to be reverting to out-and-out villainy. In recent issues, the New Mutants have grown to suspect FF of kidnapping the mutant kids and babies they were supposed to return to their families after Inferno. Now, it suggested that they are work for malign elements of the government and they spend a couple issues imprisoning and trying to recapture Cable.
It's amazing how thoroughly and quickly Cable has begun to dominate the series. He's on all three covers, while none of the actual New Mutants are on the covers of #88 or #89, outside of the corner boxes. There's no hint of time travel yet. He's described as a former government agent, and both Moira MacTaggart and Rictor know him from their pasts, without explanations yet. Moira comes to bring Rahne back to Scotland. Following up on her recent appearances in Uncanny, she seems very edgy and dresses in a risque manner, but she's suddenly very judgmental about Rahne's adventures in the New Mutants. Strangely though, after she learns Cable wants to use the New Mutants to track down some dangerous terrorists, she's fine with Rahne staying. Although it hasn't been explained yet, by now I think she's under the influence of the Shadow King. Why wouldn't he want Wolfsbane as another chess piece?
The quality of Liefeld's art varies. It seems to meshes worse with Wiacek's inks in #87 than with Barta's inks in #88-89. He has some ugly anatomy (like thick mid-sections for supposed athletes) and funky faces (Boom Boom, treated better by other artists, has some weird expressions). One of better looking faces is a panel of Rahne that looks sort of like Jim Lee drew her. But I can see how some of his panels could attention for dynamism. The MLF have very Liefeld-esque designs, in a bad way, but the design for Cable is interesting.
I'm waiting for an order of comics in the mail that includes Quasar #8, which is supposedly the next chronological New Mutants appearance. For all I know, it could turn out to be a minor cameo, but I probably wait until I get that on Monday or Tuesday to continue my binge read.
|
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on May 21, 2023 11:49:57 GMT -5
I read The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Volume 1 by Dan Rosa. Got it from the library and read it to the kids. Really good! Lots of history in there, so. Everything I know about history and geography I learned from Disney comics.   |
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on May 23, 2023 5:35:19 GMT -5
High Stepping Through the NeighborhoodJerry Van Amerongen, 1990  This is a book I like to revisit occasionally, and this weekend - my brain fried from working with no time to even do any leisure reading - I started flipping through this and ended up reading most of it while giggling uncontrollably. For those who may not be familiar with it, "The Neighborhood" was a single panel comic that appeared in (US) newspapers during the 1980s. Van Amerongen then discontinued it in around 1990 or so and starting doing a multi-panel strip called "Ballard Street" (which, I think, later went back to the single-panel format). Anyway, I've always loved these for the unique humor on display. This one in particular - which I clipped as a color Sunday strip and hung on the kitchen wall in my senior year of college - has always been a favorite:  But there are hardly any that don't at least elicit a chuckle, but more often than not a gut-laugh...  
|
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 26, 2023 9:11:45 GMT -5
The Flash #207-#211
Found a copy of "The Flash: The Secret Of Barry Allen" at work, bought it, and literally gobbled it up. It focuses on the aftermath of Wally getting Spectre to basically erase the memory of his secret identity from everybody's memories and his wife Linda going missing
Felt that it was really well written (I'd even go as far as to call it "beginner friendly") and very hopeful in some places
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on May 27, 2023 15:13:27 GMT -5
looks like I didn't post this.. read a couple stories from the Wonder Woman Golden Age Omnibus... woo boy. The bondage is out of control! I mean, I know that's not a surprise, but to see it in action, man. Also, Etta Candy doesn't get nearly enough credit.. she was the hero of most of the stories... and seems to have her own veritable army of multi-talented Sorority pledges. Also I wanted to point out (going through Avengers for my Tony Stark project), I don't ever recall him driving a tow truck! amazing! Avengers 6 must be one of Hoosier X's favorites.... a Super Villain creating a team to attack the Avengers because he's embarassed his mask is stuck on? the solution coming from PASTE POT PETE? Priceless.  |
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 27, 2023 18:56:58 GMT -5
Flash (Barry Allen) 209-212, 216, 218-219
So after finishing off the "The Secret Of Barry Allen" book I bought, I got a real itch to read some Flash and not just any old Flash! No sir, Cary Bates 70's Bronze Age Flash! (seemed like a good place to start reading from a little poking around the old interwebs)
General thoughts:
209 was neat with Flash "going beyond the speed of life" itself
210 was fun with Flash going into the future to save Abe Lincoln from yet again being killed off
211 and 212 had fun twists
|
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on May 28, 2023 8:26:09 GMT -5
Also, there's this from Flash #216. Mr. Element goes a bit nutty from a deadly solar flare that's trapped in his ring and he ends up turning Flash into a neon sign from out of Looney Tunes  |
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on May 28, 2023 9:59:25 GMT -5
I read Batman #266-270. Some nice, solid Bronze Age Batman issues. Catwoman appears in #266 and apparently has switched back to her old costume for the first time in a while. There's a cop reading a Batman comic in one panel, which I thought was cute. The shame of it is, Catwoman was thinking to herself that she'd do her time then go straight, but the train wreck that freed her (and gave her the bump on the head) changed all that.
|
|
