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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 29, 2023 22:07:23 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Geoff Johns at all.. I don't think it's too much to say he ruined Green Lantern. There, I said it  . |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 30, 2023 0:10:16 GMT -5
I’m still reading the Marvel Masterworks volume that reprints the Captain America stories in Tales of Suspense #59 to #77. I’m getting near the end, so I’m reading the storyline that introduces Sharon Carter and Batroc.
It’s been a while since I read these, and I’d forgotten that Batroc is HILARIOUS! If you ever met him, you wouldn’t be able to stop laughing even as he was foot-boxing you to death.
“Zut alors, mon ami! Ow do like being feet-boxed to a - ow you say - PULP with zis SAVATE, Americain PEEG!”
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 30, 2023 5:29:48 GMT -5
Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine InterfaceMasamune Shirow, 2005 (Eng. translation by Frederik Schoot and Toren Smith)  In Japan this was first published in 2001, and it differs from the preceding material in that there is far more color pages, and there is also a lot of CG graphics. One throughline is Shirow’s tendency to include lots of cheesecake…  …and that's one of the tamer, SFW examples. There’s otherwise way too many crotch shots, and the fact that the main character, when active in cyberspace, is portrayed ‘naked’, i.e., no clothes but Barbie-doll smooth, while still often depicted in suggestive poses. I found it rather offputting to be honest. Even though I tend to prefer color comics, here I liked the b&w sections better, because there was no CG work and there are occasionally sequences (all-too-few) featuring Shirow’s attractive pencil-and-ink art that are reminiscent of the work I liked so much in the preceding volumes.  (Note, however, the hiked up skirt the police officer is wearing…🙄) Anyway, when I picked this book up, I had high hopes that it would be better than the preceding ‘volume 1.5’ that I reviewed above – but no such luck. Apparently some bigger fans of Shirow’s work consider this a masterpiece, but I came away from it wondering why I had wasted my time reading it. The story, such as it is, involves Motoko Aramaki (who readers may initially believe is Motoko Kusanagi from the first volume, but as the story nears its conclusion we learn that this is a somewhat mistaken impression), the cybernetic chief of investigations for a multinational corporation called Poseiden Industrial, who spends most of this book trying to track down some terrorists or corporate spies or something (it was never entirely clear to me) who hacked and sabotaged one of the company’s biotech facilities in the Middle East. Much of the story involves Motoko jumping from one to another cybernetic body and tooling around in cyberspace with her AI bots trying to track down the culprit. That’s the barebones plot; the bulk of the story is pages and pages of technobabble, and visuals like this:  The prologue and epilogue also have some wordy, uninteresting (to me at least) discussions of AI and the nature of existence. Overall, I have to say: didn’t like it, don’t recommend it.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 30, 2023 8:08:47 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Geoff Johns at all.. I don't think it's too much to say he ruined Green Lantern. There, I said it . I wouldn't call him perfect, but he's decent at what he does. He seems to care more a lot about the legacy of the DC characters than a lot of other writers do
I still find it utterly mystifying that he elevated Green Lantern so well during his time on the book that he got two events and numerous spin-off books
Read Moon Knight #13 and #14
Thirteen was a team-up book with Daredevil guest appearing (feel like Sienkiewicz draws Matt and his radar sense pretty well) to take down two "reformed" criminals. It was alright I guess.
Fourteen was the first appearance of Stained Glass Scarlet and boy, does she make an impression! She's been living in a old church for god knows how long (I think the issue says twenty years) waiting for a criminal to get out of prison so she can take him down. (Obviously there's more to the story than that, but I don't want to spoil it for anybody)
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 30, 2023 16:13:57 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Geoff Johns at all.. I don't think it's too much to say he ruined Green Lantern. There, I said it . From outward appearances it looked like a highly successful franchise under his direction. It was too top heavy in characters for me to attempt to wade into. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 30, 2023 16:53:57 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Geoff Johns at all.. I don't think it's too much to say he ruined Green Lantern. There, I said it . He’s a one-trick pony and that trick isn’t remotely interesting. |
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Post by tonebone on Jul 31, 2023 10:15:52 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Geoff Johns at all.. I don't think it's too much to say he ruined Green Lantern. There, I said it . He’s a one-trick pony and that trick isn’t remotely interesting. I have not read any of his Green Lantern... but I am a fan of his Superman run with Gary Frank and his Batman Earth One series. Doomsday Clock is surprisingly good, and has a pretty complex and layered story with depth. His JSA is one of my absolute favorite series. Maybe he ruined GL, but he did a great job on lots of other stuff, in my opinion. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 31, 2023 12:19:50 GMT -5
He’s a one-trick pony and that trick isn’t remotely interesting. I have not read any of his Green Lantern... but I am a fan of his Superman run with Gary Frank and his Batman Earth One series. Doomsday Clock is surprisingly good, and has a pretty complex and layered story with depth. His JSA is one of my absolute favorite series. Maybe he ruined GL, but he did a great job on lots of other stuff, in my opinion. I read about half of the first one and the only reason I didn't set it on fire is because it was a library book. If I had it would have cost me money, but maybe I'd have saved someone else from being subjected to it. Easily one of the worst funnybooks I've ever read. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Jul 31, 2023 17:02:09 GMT -5
I read DC's recent facsimile of My Greatest Adventure #80 the other day which features the first appearance of The Doom Patrol and was really happy to find that despite having no built in affinity for the group (I may have once read whichever issue of Brave and the Bold they teamed up with The Flash in - may have) I really enjoyed it. Superman and Batman comics from this period (1963) I'm usually going to enjoy, but I can't always tell how much of that is due to the quality of the stories and how much is just nostalgia on my part for comics I read as a kid. This comic and team with which I have no sentimental ties to really reaffirmed my love for the medium and that era.
You can tell that Arnold Drake and Bob Haney put a lot of thought into these characters, so much so that their powers - what would have been the selling point in most other comics - seem to take a backseat to their personalities. The Chief's mysterious background doesn't come across as the result of a pair of writers not bothering to develop one themselves, but as an artistic choice to wait until the appropriate time presents itself; the villain, General Immortus, right off the bat is clearly a keeper in terms of both look and personality; and while Marvel was already presenting heroes with chips on their shoulders, somehow the set-up here doesn't leave you confident that over time these three will be chumming it any time soon as you might expect between, say, the members of The Fantastic Four after a period of settling in.
I know enough of The Doom Patrol to know that they won't survive the decade which is really a shame, but already, this group feels as if it has all the hallmarks of becoming a respected, but too off-beat, series to catch on.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2023 17:47:51 GMT -5
I read DC's recent facsimile of My Greatest Adventure #80 the other day which features the first appearance of The Doom Patrol and was really happy to find that despite having no built in affinity for the group (I may have once read whichever issue of Brave and the Bold they teamed up with The Flash in - may have) I really enjoyed it. Superman and Batman comics from this period (1963) I'm usually going to enjoy, but I can't always tell how much of that is due to the quality of the stories and how much is just nostalgia on my part for comics I read as a kid. This comic and team with which I have no sentimental ties to really reaffirmed my love for the medium and that era. You can tell that Arnold Drake and Bob Haney put a lot of thought into these characters, so much so that their powers - what would have been the selling point in most other comics - seem to take a backseat to their personalities. The Chief's mysterious background doesn't come across as the result of a pair of writers not bothering to develop one themselves, but as an artistic choice to wait until the appropriate time presents itself; the villain, General Immortus, right off the bat is clearly a keeper in terms of both look and personality; and while Marvel was already presenting heroes with chips on their shoulders, somehow the set-up here doesn't leave you confident that over time these three will be chumming it any time soon as you might expect between, say, the members of The Fantastic Four after a period of settling in. I know enough of The Doom Patrol to know that they won't survive the decade which is really a shame, but already, this group feels as if it has all the hallmarks of becoming a respected, but too off-beat, series to catch on. I read the whole 1960s run of The Doom Patrol from library reprints just a few years ago. I love it! (At least until they had to marry Rita off to Mento. UGH! He is such an ass ... and so boring!) But I bought that reprint just a few weeks ago because IT’S AWESOME!! |
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 31, 2023 19:55:45 GMT -5
I read DC's recent facsimile of My Greatest Adventure #80 the other day which features the first appearance of The Doom Patrol and was really happy to find that despite having no built in affinity for the group (I may have once read whichever issue of Brave and the Bold they teamed up with The Flash in - may have) I really enjoyed it. Superman and Batman comics from this period (1963) I'm usually going to enjoy, but I can't always tell how much of that is due to the quality of the stories and how much is just nostalgia on my part for comics I read as a kid. This comic and team with which I have no sentimental ties to really reaffirmed my love for the medium and that era. You can tell that Arnold Drake and Bob Haney put a lot of thought into these characters, so much so that their powers - what would have been the selling point in most other comics - seem to take a backseat to their personalities. The Chief's mysterious background doesn't come across as the result of a pair of writers not bothering to develop one themselves, but as an artistic choice to wait until the appropriate time presents itself; the villain, General Immortus, right off the bat is clearly a keeper in terms of both look and personality; and while Marvel was already presenting heroes with chips on their shoulders, somehow the set-up here doesn't leave you confident that over time these three will be chumming it any time soon as you might expect between, say, the members of The Fantastic Four after a period of settling in. I know enough of The Doom Patrol to know that they won't survive the decade which is really a shame, but already, this group feels as if it has all the hallmarks of becoming a respected, but too off-beat, series to catch on. I liked and enjoyed Morrison's take on the series, but a lot of that had to do with how absolutely insane it gets at times. I am however happy that Doom Patrol is finally starting to get the recognition it so justly deserved with a TV show on MAX |
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Post by commond on Aug 1, 2023 5:44:19 GMT -5
Stan's final FF story was a two-partner in issues #124-125 that saw the return of Monster from the Lost Lagoon. Not the greatest story, but better than I expected. There was a great cliffhanger at the end of issue #124 where a terrified Sue Storm thought she was about to drown. Stan ends with a message about brotherhood and accepting each other's differences, and that's a wrap.
So, what to make of it? Stan didn't pen any classic Fantastic Four adventures after Jack left, but it wasn't a total disaster, and I should really preface that by saying that Jack wasn't producing classic FF stories either. The saving grace was the artwork. Romita and Buscema weren't able to emulate Kirby, but they were no slouches themselves, and it's fair to say that the art didn't suffer, especially with Sinnott still doing the inking. The stories were average, and there was a distinct lack of character development, but they were good enough that if you were 12 years old and still using your allowance to buy FF books, that you wouldn't notice the difference. I think post-Ditko Spider-Man is MUCH better. Whether that's because Stan was better at writing Spider-Man than the FF, I'm not sure. A case can be made that Stan and Romita took Spider-Man to greater heights than Stan and Ditko did. I'm not sure I agree with it, but it's an argument I'd listen to. I don't think that you can argue that Stan and Buscema made the FF better. Ditko left much earlier than Jack did, if I'm not mistaken, and it's possible that Stan was more concerned with the comics at that time than he was in the 70s, but having read the post-Kirby Fantastic Four I can definitely see why Kirby's family said he wasn't a science fiction guy and didn't share the wealth of knowledge that Jack had. He liked to write existential Silver Surfer musings, and he was keen on promoting peace, love and brotherhood. I don't think that was a gimmick. He made a point to include anti-war and anti-prejudice messages in just about every story he scripted. The time was right for him to step down, and I don't think anyone wishes we could have gotten more Stan Lee FF stories. I don't have any plans on reading the issues that follow. I read the storyline that culminated with FF #200 a while back, and enjoyed it, but I've had my fill of the FF for the time being.
If anyone has an opinion on the post-Stan era, chime in.
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Post by kirby101 on Aug 1, 2023 7:52:54 GMT -5
Thoughts on what commond said. I think Spider-Man had two things going for it, it played into Stan's strength, which was teenage agnst and romance, which was what he was doing at Marvel before Kirby and Ditko came in to do Monsters and then Super heroes. And Romita was an excellent plotter and had a background in Romance comics which was a bigger part of Spider-Man than it was the FF.
Stan really wasn't good at the cosmic, science stuff without Kirby to come up with the concepts. He just rehashed stories Kirby had done. Thankfully he had two great artists to help him. Also, we know by the FF #90s Kirby had his foot out the door, so most of these stories were one offs of stuff he could do in his sleep. But before that, he produced one of the better Dr Doom stories in 84-87.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,190 
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Post by Confessor on Aug 1, 2023 10:18:58 GMT -5
Thoughts on what commond said. I think Spider-Man had two things going for it, it played into Stan's strength, which was teenage agnst and romance, which was what he was doing at Marvel before Kirby and Ditko came in to do Monsters and then Super heroes. And Romita was an excellent plotter and had a background in Romance comics which was a bigger part of Spider-Man than it was the FF. Stan really wasn't good at the cosmic, science stuff without Kirby to come up with the concepts. He just rehashed stories Kirby had done. Thankfully he had two great artists to help him. Also, we know by the FF #90s Kirby had his foot out the door, so most of these stories were one offs of stuff he could do in his sleep. But before that, he produced one of the better Dr Doom stories in 84-87. I really agree with this. I've read a fair bit of Silver Age Marvel stuff and, much as I can enjoy the likes of Fantastic Four, Avengers etc, I've always felt that Amazing Spider-Man really was the best of Marvel's 60s output. Now, I should just say that Spidey is by far my favourite superhero character, so I am a bit biased...but even when I really try to look at it objectively, Stan just seemed better at writing the romance, teenage angst and street-level action stuff that Spidey required than the cosmic/science stuff other titles needed. |
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Post by badwolf on Aug 1, 2023 11:34:02 GMT -5
My favorite work of Geoff Johns is The Flash. I've read the run twice, years apart, and it still holds up great.
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