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Post by commond on Sept 26, 2023 18:26:03 GMT -5
I finished reading Naoki Urasawa's Monster, which is hands down one of the best written manga series you'll ever read. Superbly well-crafted, and one of the best comics of the 90s for my money. I'm contemplating watching the anime, but I might jump into another Urasawa series instead.
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 26, 2023 19:32:57 GMT -5
Has anybody read Doomsday Clock from DC? The collection is on sale at Comixology and i was thinking about getting it.
Nevermind, I read some reviews and seems like there was a big creatives-editorial problems.
I recall there being LONG delays between issues. Some have said that it's decent, but IDK, trying to incorporate Watchmen into the DC universe is kind of a fool's errand that came off more like a pure cash grab rather than an earnest endeavour to tell a good, compelling story
{Spoiler: Click to show}
What I got out of it, from what little I did read, was that Manhattan was the one who really meddled with things and created the New 52 universe |
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 26, 2023 19:41:49 GMT -5
the only conclusion is that Stan's biggest creation was that he was the one who came up with all the ideas that made Marvel great. At some point people will have to come to grips that Stan flat out lied. I understand the love for the man, but his famous "bad-memory" was only in service of the legend of Stan Lee. I seriously doubt Stan would remember the Crime Master from two issues he only dialoged. And again, he kept saying for years he and Ditko argued about who the Goblin was, and HE, not Ditko, decided it was Osborn. He and Ditko weren't talking, he had nothing to do with the plots of Spider-Man, and Ditko obviously was setting up Osborn to be the GG. There is even the story from Lee advocates that Ditko quit over the Goblin reveal. And how Stan made the right choice. (even Neal Gaiman fell for this myth). Ditko quit over royalties and not getting the credit due him. For some reason I thought Ditko quit because he drank too much of the Ayn Rand kool-aid and just got fed up with how Marvel was run? Stan is, well, he's Stan. With Marvel, they make it out to be that Stan was that much of a workhorse and that he basically wrote all the given titles for that period of time, which is theoretically impossible for numerous reasons. I doubt that Stan would have been that able to recall "who did what" on book z and what character from book c was in book a at the time that book d took place Also, can we all agree that the "Circus Of Crime" was kind of a crappy group that got pushed way too hard? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 26, 2023 22:23:37 GMT -5
I don’t think we can all agree on that. Spidey #16 and #22 are both pretty great.
Not that the Circus of Crime isn’t kind of dopey. But they’re awesome despite that.
I do get kind of tired of the Mole Man showing up so much.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 26, 2023 22:45:38 GMT -5
the only conclusion is that Stan's biggest creation was that he was the one who came up with all the ideas that made Marvel great. At some point people will have to come to grips that Stan flat out lied. I understand the love for the man, but his famous "bad-memory" was only in service of the legend of Stan Lee. I seriously doubt Stan would remember the Crime Master from two issues he only dialoged. And again, he kept saying for years he and Ditko argued about who the Goblin was, and HE, not Ditko, decided it was Osborn. He and Ditko weren't talking, he had nothing to do with the plots of Spider-Man, and Ditko obviously was setting up Osborn to be the GG. There is even the story from Lee advocates that Ditko quit over the Goblin reveal. And how Stan made the right choice. (even Neal Gaiman fell for this myth). Ditko quit over royalties and not getting the credit due him. Also, can we all agree that the "Circus Of Crime" was kind of a crappy group that got pushed way too hard? We cannot. |
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 27, 2023 8:37:52 GMT -5
Without the Circus of Crime, we would never have the Clown Hulk, who mysteriously acquires the ability to juggle.  |
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 27, 2023 8:46:34 GMT -5
the only conclusion is that Stan's biggest creation was that he was the one who came up with all the ideas that made Marvel great. At some point people will have to come to grips that Stan flat out lied. I understand the love for the man, but his famous "bad-memory" was only in service of the legend of Stan Lee. I seriously doubt Stan would remember the Crime Master from two issues he only dialoged. And again, he kept saying for years he and Ditko argued about who the Goblin was, and HE, not Ditko, decided it was Osborn. He and Ditko weren't talking, he had nothing to do with the plots of Spider-Man, and Ditko obviously was setting up Osborn to be the GG. There is even the story from Lee advocates that Ditko quit over the Goblin reveal. And how Stan made the right choice. (even Neal Gaiman fell for this myth). Ditko quit over royalties and not getting the credit due him. For some reason I thought Ditko quit because he drank too much of the Ayn Rand kool-aid and just got fed up with how Marvel was run? Stan is, well, he's Stan. With Marvel, they make it out to be that Stan was that much of a workhorse and that he basically wrote all the given titles for that period of time, which is theoretically impossible for numerous reasons. I doubt that Stan would have been that able to recall "who did what" on book z and what character from book c was in book a at the time that book d took place Also, can we all agree that the "Circus Of Crime" was kind of a crappy group that got pushed way too hard? BTW, it turns out Stan wasn't doing everything else. He convinced his Uncle that he needed days off to write. He was only in the office 3 days a week and it was Sol Brodsky that kept all the nuts and bolts going. Production, payroll, office management, was all Brodsky. As to your other point, for Stan to keep the Universe together, you would think he would have scripts and or synopsis for all the books. But we only have some of those that Roy or others transcribed later. The man who talks about his famous faulty memory, who only wrote down dialog directly on the incoming art pages, supposedly had the whole of the Marvel Universe in his head. |
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Post by MDG on Sept 27, 2023 9:43:54 GMT -5
Without the Circus of Crime, we would never have the Clown Hulk, who mysteriously acquires the ability to juggle. Every time i see this panel, I feel so sorry for that horse! He's terrified! |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,190 
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Post by Confessor on Sept 27, 2023 11:51:00 GMT -5
Carrying on with my re-read of J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man, with issues #57 (#498 in the old legacy numbering) through to #505…  ASM #57 kicks off a 3-part story called "Happy Birthday", which concludes in the anniversary issue #500 (upon which Amazing Spider-Man returns to its legacy numbering for the remainder of Straczynski's run). The story starts with an invasion of the Mindless Ones in Times Square. They are materialising in the heart of New York from an alternate dimension to prepare the way for the return of Dormammu, which results in a fantastic battle royal, with Spidey joining the likes of Iron Man, Thor and members of the Fantastic Four – and I must say that John Romita's artwork is really, really good here…jaw-droppingly so at times! Anyway, Doctor Strange arrives and takes Spider-Man with him into an alternate dimension, with the upshot being that after Strange's battle with Dormammu, Spider-Man gets lost in time and has to fight his way back to the present. This is a handy – and utterly contrived, I might add – excuse for Spider-Man to revisit pivotal encounters from his history, which mostly amounts to landmark fights with various members of his rogue's gallery. All the big, iconic moments are here, such as the spider bite which gave Peter his powers in the first place, his being trapped beneath the fallen machinery in Doc Ock's underwater base from ASM #33, and his battle atop the Brooklyn Bridge with the Green Goblin from ASM #121, in which his true love Gwen Stacy tragically perishes. The journey through Spidey's past culminates in a meeting with – you guessed it -- Uncle Ben! Straczynski absolutely ladles on the sentimentality at this point, and I've never been much of a fan of such blatant heart-string-pulling in my comics. Yuck! To me this journey through Spidey's past feels lazy, formulaic and overly schmaltzy (though it's a handy summation of Spider-Man's history, which does kinda work OK in the context of an anniversary issue, I suppose). Still, it feels like Straczynski is giving the audience what it wants, rather than what it needs. Of much greater interest to me is the possible future timeline that Peter sees while he's fighting his way back to the present. He sees himself clothed in a new variation of his classic red and blue costume at a future time when his identity has been compromised and he's wanted by the police. Peter watches as he sees himself gunned down and killed in his last stand against the law…  Straczynski revisits, or at least references, this possible future timeline in issue #502, which is a really great issue, by the way! It features a sweet story in which a tailor named Leo Zelinsky, who specialises in making costumes for superheroes and supervillains alike, learns of a crime that is going to be committed and, at the urging of his grandson, decides to tell Spider-Man about it so the wall-crawler can intervene and stop it. At the end of the story, Zelinsky gifts Spider-Man with a sketch of a redesign of his costume and…Dum, Dum, DUMMM!...it's the same costume we saw Spidey wearing when he was was gunned down in a future timeline.  I have to say that, while this alternate future timeline that Straczynski sets up is very interesting, ultimately this plot point goes nowhere. I dunno, maybe this was all meant to build up and tie into how the writer envisioned the end of his run panning out – not that I think he'd have killed off Spider-Man, you understand, but this possible future timeline might have been referenced again if the Joe Quesada-mandated "One More Day"/"Brand New Day" reboot nonsense hadn't been forced on him at the end of his run. Backtracking slightly, ASM #501 is another fairly schmaltzy issue, which mostly revolves around Aunt May sitting in the cemetery talking to herself in front of Ben Parker's grave, while elsewhere Spidey battles a crook in a stolen battle suit. It's an utterly inconsequential issue, but at least it gives us a chance to check in with May and see how she's holding up now that she is aware that Peter is Spider-Man. Issues #503 and #504 give us a fun two-parter in which a female sorceress of chaos named Morwen is released into our world as a result of Spidey and Doctor Strange's inter-dimensional meddling a few issues back. Once on Earth, Morwen possesses the body of an innocent young women, who just so happens to be one of thousands of daughters that Thor's evil brother Loki has fathered (he has a thing for getting it on with mortals, apparently). So, Loki journeys to Earth and encounters Spidey, leading to a Marvel Team-Up-like encounter in which the two of them duke it out for a bit before deciding to work together to destroy Morwen and save Loki's progeny. This Loki/Spider-Man story is kinda average in itself, but where the two-parter really excels is in the often-hilarious interactions between the superhero and the god of mischief, now that they are working together. These scenes are a total joy! There's also a significant moment at the conclusion of ASM #504 where Loki tells Peter that he owes him a favour for his help in defeating Morwen and gives him a magical token which he can cash in if he ever needs Loki's help in the future. In issue #505, Mary Jane decides that it is time to get back to work, now that she and Peter have patched things up and saved their marriage. She decides to try breaking into acting, using her success as a famous model as a springboard. She flies to L.A. for an audition, only to be brutally rejected for being just a "bimbo model with delusions of talent" and spends the rest of the issue brooding about her failure. There's a boring concurrent storyline in which Spidey intervenes in an encounter between two policeman and a 12-year-old with a gun, culminating in Peter saving the youngster from arrest and giving him some sound advice about responsibility. All in all, it's a pretty pointless issue, although it does start the "MJ as actress" sub-plot that will develop throughout JMS' run. So, this was definitely a mixed bag of Spider-Man comics. Some of them were pretty entertaining and gripping, while others felt rather inconsequential. Overall though, I felt that this was not as good or as strong as the earlier parts of Straczynski's run. We get back to the on-going Spider Totem sub-plot in the next few issues, which will at least give the comic a renewed sense of direction. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 27, 2023 12:02:30 GMT -5
Without the Circus of Crime, we would never have the Clown Hulk, who mysteriously acquires the ability to juggle. Every time i see this panel, I feel so sorry for that horse! He's terrified! The elephant doesn't look like it's enjoying itself, either. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 27, 2023 12:26:45 GMT -5
Every time i see this panel, I feel so sorry for that horse! He's terrified! The elephant doesn't look like it's enjoying itself, either. I’m pretty sure the seal is already dead. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2023 12:33:00 GMT -5
Juggling also doesn’t work in a “circle” like that, it’s an alternating pattern in front of you. This will not end well for the horse based on that position.
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Post by Calidore on Sept 27, 2023 13:33:16 GMT -5
Juggling also doesn’t work in a “circle” like that, it’s an alternating pattern in front of you. This will not end well for the horse based on that position. Actually, you can. Check out Ukranian juggler Viktor Kee (who I sadly missed seeing recently as part of a cabaret/circus-y club act) breaking physics by juggling around his body from behind his back at 1:47 here.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2023 13:37:52 GMT -5
Juggling also doesn’t work in a “circle” like that, it’s an alternating pattern in front of you. This will not end well for the horse based on that position. Actually, you can. Check out Ukranian juggler Viktor Kee (who I sadly missed seeing recently as part of a cabaret/circus-y club act) breaking physics by juggling around his body from behind his back at 1:47 here.
Haha, I want to see the Hulk pull off THAT move with the animals! On second thought, I probably don’t  |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 27, 2023 15:37:42 GMT -5
Without the Circus of Crime, we would never have the Clown Hulk, who mysteriously acquires the ability to juggle. ...except that's not the Circus of Crime. It's a legit circus troupe, identified years later in West Coast Avengers Annual #1 as the Kiebler Circus.
Cei-U! I summon the big top boo-boo!
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