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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 5, 2023 7:45:43 GMT -5
I am reading Epic Collection: Amazing Spider-Man Vol 4, and the first four issues #53-56, are a Dock Ock arc. Spidey loses his memory, and he's so stupid that he decides to believe everything that Dock Ock, a self-confessed criminal, tells him. "I don't remember a thing, so I'd better believe whatever this guy who admits he's a criminal tells me, even though it feels wrong in my guy!". Uh, okay. Then again, he's related to Aunt May, who continues to believe Dock Ock is a nice, harmless man in spite of what the news says about him being a wanted criminal, so I shouldn't be so surprised at Petey's stupidity.
It's my delayed tribute to John Romita, though it looks like some of the issues I've read he's only doing layouts (?) and Don Heck is doing finishes, with "Mickey Demeo" (Mike Espisito, I think) doing the inking.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2023 8:43:51 GMT -5
I am reading Epic Collection: Amazing Spider-Man Vol 4, and the first four issues #53-56, are a Dock Ock arc. Spidey loses his memory, and he's so stupid that he decides to believe everything that Dock Ock, a self-confessed criminal, tells him. "I don't remember a thing, so I'd better believe whatever this guy who admits he's a criminal tells me, even though it feels wrong in my guy!". Uh, okay. Then again, he's related to Aunt May, who continues to believe Dock Ock is a nice, harmless man in spite of what the news says about him being a wanted criminal, so I shouldn't be so surprised at Petey's stupidity. It's my delayed tribute to John Romita, though it looks like some of the issues I've read he's only doing layouts (?) and Don Heck is doing finishes, with "Mickey Demeo" (Mike Espisito, I think) doing the inking. My first 1960s back issue of Spider-Man were #53 and #55 (which I got for $1 each in the mid-1970s) and it’s always been a favorite Doc Ock appearance. My nostalgic attachment is very strong so I don’t think I could ever notice that it’s kind of stupid. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2023 8:45:26 GMT -5
This morning I read WF # 233.
 It was so goofy and dated it was really fun to read. It's a Super sons story involving them going to a town where all women are running everything. They are jailed for illegal parking of their van and discover that some alien is influencing them to keep men out of their community. This is where the Bob Haney elements become apparent. The alien is doing this because it is considered ugly in its world and wants the beautiful women on earth to suffer and be without men. The reason men are to be avoided is that contact with them can break the control the alien has over them. After the Sons stop and send the alien packing, Bruce Waynes son decides to " help" the female population throw off the mind effects by kissing them all . Trigger warning to all you modern men out there...  I have to admit, the Dick Dillan art was fitting to this type of story. Reading too much Super-Sons can cause brain damage! |
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Post by spoon on Aug 5, 2023 10:35:03 GMT -5
I vaguely remember reading that Lois Lane mini (I bought it for the Morrow art) and was under the impression that even at the time it was considered non-canonical and existed primarily at the request of some government agency or charity (kinda like those New Teen Titans anti-drug one-shots). But I could be misremembering. It was forty years ago, after all. Cei-U! I summon the hazy memories! Both issues have letter columns (without letters) written by Mindy Newell addressing the issue of missing children. It definitely is directed to issue advocacy, although I don't think there's a mention of anyone commissioning the story. Lois Lane visits what I assume is a real organization (Child Search Inc.) in New Paltz, New York, and the story tries to work in information and scenarios under which kids disappear. It looks almost as if it was re-worked from a 4 issue mini-series, because each issue is divided into 2 parts with separate titles with the letter column falling between the 2 parts. |
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Post by majestic on Aug 5, 2023 10:38:25 GMT -5
Reading too much Super-Sons can cause brain damage! I love the Super Sons! Bob Haney wrote some crazy stories for World's Finest and Brave and the Bold. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 5, 2023 10:47:12 GMT -5
It looks almost as if it was re-worked from a 4 issue mini-series, because each issue is divided into 2 parts with separate titles with the letter column falling between the 2 parts. I'd forgotten that until you mentioned it but, yes, when it was first announced in an issue of Amazing Heroes, it was as a 4-issue mini. If memory serves, it was compressed into two because they wanted it off the stands before Byrne's Superman reboot debuted.
Cei-U! I summon the inventory dump!
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2023 12:21:12 GMT -5
I finished Human Disastrophism. Wow. Just wow.
I am a little disappointed that Tonantzin died. Especially the way it was presented, almost like a footnote. She’s one of my favorite Beto characters. And now there’s no more Tonantzin.
Flipping through this massive volume, I find that I’ve read all the earlier stories. Among the later stories, there’s a bunch of stuff that looks familiar and one story that I’m sure I’ve never read. So I’m going to hang on to this for a few weeks and not take it back to the library until I’ve read or re-read everything after Human Disastrophism.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2023 12:26:01 GMT -5
And I’m still reading old Captain America stories from Tales of Suspense in a Marvel Masterworks volume. I’m up to Tales of Suspense #79, the first part of the storyline where Cap faces the Red Skull for the first time since World War II. This is the storyline that introduces the Cosmic Cube.
This is my favorite Captain America storyline ever, by the way. And this run, from about #72 to Captain America #100, is my favorite Cap run.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 5, 2023 16:23:44 GMT -5
I am reading Epic Collection: Amazing Spider-Man Vol 4, and the first four issues #53-56, are a Dock Ock arc. Spidey loses his memory, and he's so stupid that he decides to believe everything that Dock Ock, a self-confessed criminal, tells him. "I don't remember a thing, so I'd better believe whatever this guy who admits he's a criminal tells me, even though it feels wrong in my guy!". Uh, okay. Then again, he's related to Aunt May, who continues to believe Dock Ock is a nice, harmless man in spite of what the news says about him being a wanted criminal, so I shouldn't be so surprised at Petey's stupidity. It's my delayed tribute to John Romita, though it looks like some of the issues I've read he's only doing layouts (?) and Don Heck is doing finishes, with "Mickey Demeo" (Mike Espisito, I think) doing the inking. My first 1960s back issue of Spider-Man were #53 and #55 (which I got for $1 each in the mid-1970s) and it’s always been a favorite Doc Ock appearance. My nostalgic attachment is very strong so I don’t think I could ever notice that it’s kind of stupid. Yeah, I feel that way about a lot of comics myself, like the first World's Finest I ever bought (first DC comic, in fact) where the Atom has to go Fantastic Voyage and go inside Batman to save him. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2023 16:28:40 GMT -5
My first 1960s back issue of Spider-Man were #53 and #55 (which I got for $1 each in the mid-1970s) and it’s always been a favorite Doc Ock appearance. My nostalgic attachment is very strong so I don’t think I could ever notice that it’s kind of stupid. Yeah, I feel that way about a lot of comics myself, like the first World's Finest I ever bought (first DC comic, in fact) where the Atom has to go Fantastic Voyage and go inside Batman to save him. That sounds like The Brave and the Bold #115, WHICH IS AWESOME! Somebody asked Bob Haney, at a Comic-Con panel, what his favorite story was that he ever wrote, and he singled out the story where the Atom revived the comatose Batman and then operated his body by stimulating the brain. |
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Post by kirby101 on Aug 5, 2023 16:55:48 GMT -5
And I’m still reading old Captain America stories from Tales of Suspense in a Marvel Masterworks volume. I’m up to Tales of Suspense #79, the first part of the storyline where Cap faces the Red Skull for the first time since World War II. This is the storyline that introduces the Cosmic Cube. This is my favorite Captain America storyline ever, by the way. And this run, from about #72 to Captain America #100, is my favorite Cap run. Loved that Story too. The final chapter is in a Kirby Artist Edition, and the Frank Giaccioa inked art is amazing. Those were excellent stories, mostly plotted by Kirby with top Stan dialog. Sometimes I think he was better scripting these shorter tales. Except for that Batrock dialog snafu.   |
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Post by james on Aug 6, 2023 13:47:32 GMT -5
Been really busy getting ready for wedding, but now that that is done and we are honeymooning in Italy I have been catching up on FF Masterworks and I must say. I am truly truly enjoying FF 1-10 I find Lee’s writing to just flow and be more adult than I expected. After ready a couple volumes of early Spiderman and finding his writing too “hip” for me I I always thought everything he was in that vain. And of course Kirby’s art is superb.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 6, 2023 15:14:49 GMT -5
I just read the scene in Tales of Suspense #80 where the Red Skull hypnotizes his assistant Wolfgang and makes him commit suicide. Just for being a tad too familiar (in the Red Skull’s opinion).
Brrrrr!
I read this in Marvel Double Feature in the 1970s, and it still creeps me out like it did when I was 13.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 7, 2023 4:31:48 GMT -5
Dylan Dog – Zedstory: Tiziano Sclavi, art: Bruno Brindisi (Dark Horse, 2002)  Last year in the European comics thread I reviewed a number of stories featuring Dylan Dog, a paranormal investigator that’s one of the more popular properties of Italy’s Bonelli Comics, which were also published in English by Dark Horse in the late 1990s. (The link above is to the first post, scroll down for reviews of the other Dylan Dog stories.) Recently I snagged a really cheap copy of this one (cost me 1 euro, so little more than a buck), which Dark Horse published as a one-off a few years after the ones I mentioned above. The story: Dylan’s (current) girlfriend quietly slips out of their bed late one night, sneaks through a few of London’s sidestreets to make an appointment with a mysterious man called the Scout – he takes her to a brick wall in an alley and opens up what is a portal to an apparently paradisiacal other dimensional world (which the Scout calls ‘Zed’). Dylan, meanwhile, gets roused from his sleep by a well-armed squad of riot police who want to find his girlfriend (known by her nickname, Mac), as she is apparently a member of the IRA. Once he gets bailed out of jail, Dylan begins to search for her as well – and it takes him to one of the weirdest places he’s ever been in – as well as an attempt to foil a terrorist bombing. Honestly, this one’s kind of all over the place and not terribly interesting – I liked all of the other Dylan Dog stories I’d read previously much more. Brindisi’s art is pretty good, though, and I liked the little Easter eggs when Dylan is in Zed itself, like Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Tinkerbell in this panel... 
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,190 
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Post by Confessor on Aug 7, 2023 5:53:05 GMT -5
I've started to re-read J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man and have so far read issues #30–42 (or issues #471–483 in legacy numbering)…  I really loved Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man as it was coming out. I eagerly bought it month after month and was rarely disappointed. I still hold the run in very high regard today – even considering it to be the best run on the title since Roger Stern's in the early-to-mid '80s (or maybe even since Len Wein's mid-70s run)! So, I was pretty interested to see how well this held up a decade and a half since I last read it. Right from his first issue, Straczynski comes on like gangbusters! He boldly begins setting up a story that re-examines and potentially takes a hammer to one of the core tenants of the Peter Parker story: namely, that the spider biting him in Amazing Fantasy #15 was not just a random, freak occurrence, but a deliberate attempt by the irradiated arachnid to pass on its abilities to Peter before it died. This revelation is passed on to Peter by a new character named Ezekiel, who is an older businessman with identical Spider powers to Peter. Ezekiel explains that Peter is a "totem" – a bridge between man and beast, possessing elements of both creatures. Ezekiel becomes something of a mentor to Peter and the whole Spider-totem storyline will rear its head again further down the line. In the same storyline that introduces Ezekiel and the Spider-totem concept, we also get the arrival of a new villain: the downright scary Morlun, who is a vampiric creature who feeds on totemistic forces like the ones coursing through Peter's body. This opening story arc turns into an edge of your seat thrill-ride, as Morlun just keeps on coming, relentlessly attacking Spidey, trying to kill him in order to steal his essence. Ezekiel is seemingly killed by Morlun, though he of course survives in true comic book fashion. Morlun is such a great villain and probably Straczynski's best and most memorable addition to Spidey's rogues gallery. He too will pop up again in future issues, as the sporadically on-going Spider-totem storyline gathers pace. Straczynski also delivers a one-off story set around the events of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in issue #36 (which famously came wrapped in a black cover)…  It's a heartfelt tribute to the fallen, to be sure, and it certainly has its heart in the right place. But whereas I once found it a bit silly for showing us the likes of Doctor Doom and Magneto at ground zero with tears welling in their eyes, I now view it as mildly offensive for trivialising such a terrible event. I think my main complaint is that although the destruction of the Twin Towers was an appallingly horrific event for us, in the Marvel Universe it was just another Tuesday – just kinda business as usual! To see it given equal weight to other crimes committed against humanity by supervillains in the Marvel Universe is kinda awkward and not a little distasteful. Basically, the issue is a mess of grandiose pontifications and "holier-than-thou" sermonising, with a palpable undercurrent of American exceptionalism, all wrapped up in a flimsy plot in which Spider-Man arrives at ground zero to contemplate the devastation of the Twin Towers' destruction. Though I'm sure it was a very personal comic to work on for both Straczynski and artist John Romita Jr., from today's vantage point it seems more like a box-ticking public relations endeavour rather than a sincere statement. It's just further evidence that the real world and the world of comic book superheroes do not really mix very well. Following the first Morlun/Spider-totem story, Straczynski drops a bombshell by having Aunt May finally learn that Peter is Spider-Man! The issues in which May finds out and then confronts Peter with the news that she knows his secret are irresistible for a long-time fan of the character and quite moving without descending into cheap sentiment. Watching May struggle to come to terms with the reality of this revelation – although she admits that, in her heart, she'd known for quite some time (since ASM #200, if you want my opinion) – is fascinating and made the character more interesting than she'd been for decades. Straczynski also sends Peter back to Midtown High School, this time as a science teacher. Personally, I really liked this plot development. Peter becoming a high school teacher seemed to make a lot of sense, in terms of his character development. He soon befriends a disadvantaged student named Jennifer, which leads into a storyline about underprivileged and homeless children being abducted from the street and imprisoned in the astral plane by a minor villain named Shade. The villain is bested by Spidey, with some help from Dr. Strange, though in doing so, Peter misses a rendezvous with Mary Jane, while she's in New York on a one-day break from modelling assignments. Pete and MJ are estranged at this point in Spider-Man's continuity and there's some nice moments of Peter thinking about how much he misses her and, as a reader, you're really rooting for them both to get back together. These early issues of Straczynski's tenure on the comic – like most of his run – are illustrated by John Romita Jr. in his later, "blocky" style. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but once I'd grown accustomed to Romita's stylised artwork (and it did take a while for me to accept it), you realise that he's actually a hell of a visual storyteller. All in all, these first 12 issues of Straczynski's run are just a tour de force of superhero storytelling and the most interesting the wall-crawler's adventures had been in years. I'm looking forward to continuing to read on. |
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