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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 19, 2015 17:02:46 GMT -5
Outside of reading Marvel's Star Wars series for my review thread, I've also recently read Marvel Team-Up #132, which features an enjoyable (though slightly forgettable) Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic story. I've also re-read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 recently, which is the one where Peter Parker learns that his parents were spies. Far from being the moment when ASM jumped the shark (as some people think it is), I've always found this book to be a rollicking and well executed slice of Silver Age greatness. While I don't think Annual 5 is when Amazing jumped the shark (its events are ignored outside the Marvel Universe Handbooks for a good 20+ years), it is when Stan Lee definitively proved he could make bad decisions about his flagship characters. Spidey, comics' Everyman, is the son of murdered SHIELD agents. No, Stan. Just... no. Cei-U! I summon a strong case for retconning!
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Post by Confessor on Aug 19, 2015 20:42:20 GMT -5
While I don't think Annual 5 is when Amazing jumped the shark (its events are ignored outside the Marvel Universe Handbooks for a good 20+ years), it is when Stan Lee definitively proved he could make bad decisions about his flagship characters. Spidey, comics' Everyman, is the son of murdered SHIELD agents. No, Stan. Just... no. Cei-U! I summon a strong case for retconning! I get what you're saying and I can see why it might be considered a bad idea, but I think the execution of it all is so much fun that that kind of excuses it to a large degree. Was it a mistake on Stan's part, yeah maybe....but with spy drama being so fashionable at the time, you can certainly see the rationale behind this story. And, for me at least, the proof is in the pudding. Spidey is definitely an everyman in part, but he's also led a pretty exceptional life -- both in terms of his superheroing and his private life. Peter Parker ceased to really be an everyman the day he got bitten by a radio-active spider.
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Post by Confessor on Aug 19, 2015 20:44:33 GMT -5
Have just finished Dark Horse's Herbie Archive Volume 1. It contains the various tryout short stories starting in 1959 for various ACG anthology comics as well as the first 5 issues of his own title. All written by Richard Hughes and drawn by Ogden Whitney. Fantastically whimsical and out and out funny. A breathe of fresh air against all the silly super duper shenanigans in the comic story. Herbie may be one of the most powerful characters there ever was. He can travel through time, walk at fantastic speed through the air or water, talk to animals, might be completely invulnerable and has super strength. But all he would rather do is take naps, be left alone and lick lollipops. As his father says "He's a little fat nothing" Whitney is perfect as the artist of this strip. Supposedly modeled after what Whitney himself looked like as a child, I can't help but see a resemblance between Herbie and Alan (Hello Mudder,Hello Fadda) Sherman. Richard Hughes does a great job with the scripts as well. Many celebrities show up in these early stories including JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Castro, The Beatles, Elizabeth Taylor and more. I enjoyed this so much that I now have volume 2 winging its way to my local library. There were 3 volumes in all. Try it out or you might get bopped I have all three volumes of the Dark Horse Archive reprints. I love me some Herbie Popnecker. Every issue is a joy.
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Post by berkley on Aug 21, 2015 1:08:58 GMT -5
The most enjoyable thing I've read lately is the second half of Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Volume 1, which is to say that I read the Dr. Strange portions of Strange Tales #129 - 141. This run of issues starts with a story featuring a TV show with a panel of 3 scientists who attempt to publicly debunk Strange's magic and it then goes into an epic story arc featuring Dormammu and Baron Mordo relentlessly perusing Strange, with appearances from Clea, the Mindless Ones and Eternity among others. These comics are just incredible from an artwork perspective and also from the point of view of their unbridled invention and imagination. Quite simply, these are some of the best Ditko/Lee Doctor Strange comics I have ever read. Yup, some of the best comics Marvel ever published. When Strange is on the run from Mordo's minions you really get sense of danger and suspense. Some of those scenes are very noirish, with a seedy, unshaven Strange travelling to exotic locales and skulking around docks, etc in an effort to escape his enemies' pursuit. And then the contrast between that and the weird splendour of his extra-dimensional journeys to the Dark Dimension - mind-blowing!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2015 3:59:06 GMT -5
Been reading my way through a lot of various and sundry comics the past month. On the classic side...
Steranko's Nick Fury-making my way through the Strange Tales run currently via tpb, just finished the confrontation with Baron Stucker that ran through 158. I started back with the intro of the Fury strip in 135 a while back via Unlimited and am just now getting to the Steranko run. You can see Steranko slowly evolving from a near Kirby clone working over Kirby layouts to the experimental phase leading towards what has become the trademark Steranko look. The experimentation really didn't get off the ground until he started scripting the book as well as drawing it. Lots of off the wall stuff throughout the run, but it seems new ideas are exploding off the page in just about every Steranko story.
Read through the 6 Brave and the Bold issues of the Fox/Kubert Hawkman via Showcase presents. It's really a mixed bag as the strip is finding its footing as to just who the Hawks are and what they can do, but the Kubert art carries the strip a long way in terms of enjoyment.
Started the JSA revival in All star beginning with 58 and read the first 6 issues. Enjoyable but inconsistent as some character s(like Robin show up, do nothing then get dropped without mention, and the art varies depending on the assigned team, Estrade, early Giffen, Wood inks, then Wood doing everything, and also switching form Conway to Levitz writing in those 6 issues just gives it an ad hoc mixed bag feel. There's a lot to like in it, but the strip feels like it's hanging by the skin of its teeth because of the constant flux of creators.
Also working my way through more Bronze Age Doc Strange via the Essentials, and am in the Engelhart/Colan era currently. I read through this stuff nearly 20 ears ago now (mid-90s) when I fist really got into Doc, and am enjoying it as much this go round as I did then.
Also working my way Through Warlord as documented in the Fantasy Challenge thread. Just finished the initial Grell era and Mark Texeira has taken over the art chores and Sharon Grell has begun her stint ghost-writing for Mike. Just finished the arc where Jennifer Morgan learns sorcery, and the Dragonsword back up wrapped up and Arion is about to be introduced.
Slowly working my way through the Lee/Kirby FF as well, only in the mid-20s now, coming up on the epic Thing/Hulk clash in 25 soon. Early FF is a mixed bag for me. It picks up for me a little later in the run, and I love the Kirby art, but some of these stories are a bit of a slog right now. Reading in small doses, as each story is mostly standalone, helps, as it reads more like it was intended as the book came out, but trying to read long strings of issues wears me out a little. I hope to read through the entire run of FF as there are large chunks I never had access to and now do via Unlimited, but I started from the beginning a few months back when I picked up the first Epic collection and continued on when I got Unlimited.
Still working my way through Chuck Dixon's Airboy from Eclipse as well. Really enjoying it, and reading in small chunks mixed in with the other stuff to keep it fresh for me. I am really starting to dig Stan Woch's art, but Randall has just taken over the art chores (whom I like as well).
Also working my way through the second Daredevil series (the Marvel Knights series) and just finished the story introducing Echo. Mack told a great story, but I am not grooving to the Quesada art much. I liked it a lot better when I was 20-something and this was coming out, now I see more of the weaknesses in the storytelling chops and am not wowed by the flashy design of it all as I was then.
Finally read Gil Kane's Savage, both the original mag, and then all the extra articles that were included with the Fantagraphics re-issue in the early 80s. You can see the early efforts in the format Kane developed and used more extensively with Blackmark, kind of a hybrid illustrated prose/graphic novel technique. Really enjoyed the story, and it's unfortunate Kane never got to return to the character. Apparently, according to the interview in the re-issue, there were 200K copies of the '68 magazine printed but only 20K sold, and Kane talked about how the code approved publishers tried to sabotage the book by strong arming printers into passing on printing the book and trying to limit distribution of the book. Whether he is passing on crackpot conspiracy theories or providing an accurate glimpse behind the curtain is uncertain, but Don MacGregor offered similar tales of woe with the big 2 trying to manipulate things to keep indies off the shelf by underhanded means in the letters pages of Sabre published shortly after that Kane interview appeared, so it seems several veteran creators believed there was market manipulation whether it was true or not.
Which bring me to the next read-Sabre-finished the Eclipse run (which ended mid-story). Overall I liked the series, but felt the art was strongest in the initial story with Gulacy, with Billy Graham's story having the weakest art (though not bad, just not on par with what came before and after).
Read the 1990s 3 issue prestige Adam Strange series. A more cynical take on the Strange mythos, the art by the Kubert brothers was very much still in the vein of their father, and honestly I like it a lot better than a lot of their current stuff for Marvel and DC which seems to have gone more towards the generic house style of both companies rather than having that stylistic identity of their earlier stuff. I like the series but apparently this version of Strange did not go over well and most of its developments were ignored or undone in later appearances of the character, which is unfortunate. It was a good story, but it was a set up for a new status quo that would have been interesting. If it was not a take they wanted to move forward with, it should have been designed to be more complete unto itself instead of being structured as a springboard to more new stuff. That's one of the inherent weaknesses with shared universe stuff, if you try something new it has to be geared to be part of a larger whole and if it doesn't resonate, you have to then spend time, money and stories undoing it. If it were structured to just be a story in and of itself, it could stand or fall on its own merits and moving forward elements could be adopted or discarded as needed, but it would feel less unfinished because being a set up, it left a lot of things unresolved that editorial and future creators then backed away from. It was part of the string of attempts to revamp characters with more modern sensibilities in the post-Crisis DCU (from Man of Steel to things like Long Bow Hunters, etc.), but this one didn't get the reception they were hoping for.
Read the Jack of Hearts mini form the 80s. Mostly just meh. I loved the character as a kid when he was appearing in Iron Man trying to learn how to be a hero as Shellhead's sidekick/trainee, but the mini takes Jack in a different direction I didn't enjoy as much. The Freeman art was nice though.
Read the 2001 Ghost Rider mini from Devin Grayson (Hammer Lane) whose sole purpose it seemed was to get Blaze back to being Ghost Rider. The art was not to my taste at all (I would say it was terrible, but it might be a style that appears to others), the plot threadbare (Blaze's life gets turned upside down when the Spirit of Vengeance re-emerges, he goes on the run and on a vengeance kick, feels guilty so hires a super-biker thug to kill the Rider then feels guilty about the collateral damage so confronts the biker and accepts his role as GR), ugh! This is one of the stories that fuels my belief that the Rider is a better visual than a character, as the stories often do nothing but serve as a means to draw the Rider doing "cool shit" for a few pages. Not every GR series/arc is this bad, but there are enough to fuel my conclusions.
Read a bunch of random stuff from the boxes as well, some interesting, some not-The CrossGen Primer and Preview books, the classic Green Lantern #76 via a Millennium Edition, some Men of War, Flash, Bronze Age Ghost Rider,Brave & The Bold, Groo, the Break Thru mini by Perez from Malibu, Stainless Steel Rat, Charlton's Captain Atom, Sgt. Rock etc. randomly selected from the boxes to keep things fresh as I read through longer runs.
Have also read a bunch of more modern stuff (The Brubaker Point Blank/Sleeper stuff, Sixth Gun, Fade Out, Bendis Avengers via Unlimited, Abnett & Lanning's Nova, Annihilation Conquest, etc. but won't say much as not a lot qualifies as classic by board definition.
-M
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 21, 2015 9:10:25 GMT -5
I read Essential Marvel Team-Up volumes 1 and 2. Well, if it wasn't Spidey, I'm not sure it would have really taken off, and I'm a sucker for team-up books. The writing was a bit sketchy, and Spidey seemed to act like a jerk an awful lot. It did get better, though when Mantlo took over, and of course better yet with Claremont.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 21, 2015 14:37:48 GMT -5
Weird Love-You Know You Want It
An IDW hardcover reprinting wonky romance stories from the 1950s and 1960s. I agree-you know you want it. Contents include
I Fell For A Commie - What, just because he was to go halfsies with the dinner check? Love Of A Lunatic-Art by Ogden Whitney A young woman gets locked into an insane asylum. Will she ever find true love? The Taming Of The Brute-Art if you want to call it by Vince Colletta A wife needs a good spanking if she tries to be the boss of the house Love In High Style-She thought her boyfriend wore ugly suits. There's worse than that out there in the romance jungle You Also Snore Darling-Art by Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez Title says it all Yes I Was An Escort Girl-Title says it better than I can Too Fat For Love-I like titles that say it like it is Slave To Despair Art by George Evans Edith gets messed up with drugs A one page Ronal Reagan bio that has nothing to do with romance Bosco Plays Matchmaker Art by George Klein Bosco the Bear lives in the city zoo and arranbges a romance to blossom. Heartrending Mini Must Go-An idiot boss doesn't like his secretaries wear short skirts and wonders why other male executives quit their jobs. What an idiot Beautiful One- A man falls for a tropical island girl but she gives him permission to go back to the States for one year to test that his love for her is true. He writes her letters of all the girls he's dating during that year. What a cad. There's No Romance In Rock N Roll-Believe your parents. Rock N Roll is no good Weep Clown Weep-Art by Marc Swayze How can you really love a circus clown? And does those big floppy feet mean he has a big floppy.... You're Fired Darling-When you date the boss, beware. Another spanking denouement Two Wayward Girls-Another tale of true love with escort girls Love, Honor and Swing Baby-Love amongst the hippies is not as groovy as straight love Gangster's Girl-She dates an honest government politician who's trying to take her gagster boyfriend down. She actually stays with the gangster and his money in the end. Shocking Bottled Heartache- Art by Bill Draut A young wife and mother will do anything for a drink. The husband leaves but lets her keep the kid. Wha?
You know you want this
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Post by paulie on Aug 21, 2015 17:20:17 GMT -5
Been reading my way through a lot of various and sundry comics the past month. On the classic side... Steranko's Nick Fury-making my way through the Strange Tales run currently via tpb, just finished the confrontation with Baron Stucker that ran through 158. I started back withthe intor of the Fury strip in 135 a while back via Unlimited and am just now getting to the Steranko run. You can see Steranko slowly evolving form a near Kirby clone working over Kirby layouts to the experimental phase leading towards what has become the trademark Steranko look. The experimentation really didn't get off the ground until he started scripting the book as well as drawing it. Lots of off the wall stuff throughout the run, but it seems new ideas are exploding off the page in just about every Steranko story. The older I get the more I think the Nick Fury Strange Tales run (135-168) is my favorite Silver Age strip. It starts great and gets better and better each issue.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Aug 21, 2015 18:53:13 GMT -5
Outside of reading Marvel's Star Wars series for my review thread, I've also recently read Marvel Team-Up #132, which features an enjoyable (though slightly forgettable) Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic story. I've also re-read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 recently, which is the one where Peter Parker learns that his parents were spies. Far from being the moment when ASM jumped the shark (as some people think it is), I've always found this book to be a rollicking and well executed slice of Silver Age greatness. I agree I love that annual! Great cover and art, and sure the story is a bit odd but I really enjoyed it. For me, it is one of the better explanations of Parker's parents. Their return of clones, while moderately interesting, was not well executed and well, I am just not a huge fan of clone madness. Has there been any telling of their history since? Or has it kind of just been left with this as their back story? Forgive me for not having read a Spidey comic between 1995-nowish with the exception of a few here and there.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 21, 2015 23:01:44 GMT -5
Outside of reading Marvel's Star Wars series for my review thread, I've also recently read Marvel Team-Up #132, which features an enjoyable (though slightly forgettable) Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic story. I've also re-read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 recently, which is the one where Peter Parker learns that his parents were spies. Far from being the moment when ASM jumped the shark (as some people think it is), I've always found this book to be a rollicking and well executed slice of Silver Age greatness. I agree I love that annual! Great cover and art, and sure the story is a bit odd but I really enjoyed it. For me, it is one of the better explanations of Parker's parents. Their return of clones, while moderately interesting, was not well executed and well, I am just not a huge fan of clone madness. Has there been any telling of their history since? Or has it kind of just been left with this as their back story? Forgive me for not having read a Spidey comic between 1995-nowish with the exception of a few here and there. There's really no way of knowing what the current backstory is, given they are rebooting everything with Secret Wars or whatever this crap is now. But the spy thing was still in place as of the late 90's anyway:
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Post by berkley on Aug 22, 2015 1:08:12 GMT -5
While I don't think Annual 5 is when Amazing jumped the shark (its events are ignored outside the Marvel Universe Handbooks for a good 20+ years), it is when Stan Lee definitively proved he could make bad decisions about his flagship characters. Spidey, comics' Everyman, is the son of murdered SHIELD agents. No, Stan. Just... no. Cei-U! I summon a strong case for retconning! I get what you're saying and I can see why it might be considered a bad idea, but I think the execution of it all is so much fun that that kind of excuses it to a large degree. Was it a mistake on Stan's part, yeah maybe....but with spy drama being so fashionable at the time, you can certainly see the rationale behind this story. And, for me at least, the proof is in the pudding. Spidey is definitely an everyman in part, but he's also led a pretty exceptional life -- both in terms of his superheroing and his private life. Peter Parker ceased to really be an everyman the day he got bitten by a radio-active spider. That's the point, though: if he was the son of murdered SHIELD agents he was never an everyman even before his transformation into a superhero. It turns that event into just one more extraordinary thing about him, as opposed to the idea that it took an ordinary, though intelligent, high-school kid and changed him into something extraordinary.
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Post by terence1965 on Aug 22, 2015 6:50:40 GMT -5
Thumbing through a pile of back issues, I decided to give these three Fantastic Four Annuals a re-read for possibly the first time in 35+ years, and it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
First up, FF Annual #13, on sale in July 1978 (so spoilers for FF #200 that came out a month later in August 1978; yeah the Fantastic Four get back together as a team), written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Sal Buscema (inked by Joe Sinnott).
The Mole Man is up to no good, stealing statues, and kidnapping all the ugly and blind folk from the streets of New York. So it’s a no-brainer that Alicia Masters is on his hit-list (being both a sculptress and blind - duh!), which means the newly reunited Fantastic Four get involved in his dastardly plot to give all those ugly and blind people a place to call home beneath the Earth’s surface. No matter that they’ll all be dimly lit; they’ll no longer be ostracised from an uncaring society and will have all these beautiful statues to look at. Can anyone else see (no pun intended) a problem with that?
Anyway, the Fantastic Four bust up on the Mole Man and his Moloids until Alica breaks up the fighting by pointing out that the Mole Man’s intentions were good (though probably misguided), and that many of those he kidnapped are more than happy to shuffle around in the near dark, bumping into statues and being reminded of their lack of good looks. So as a parting gift she sculpts a statue of the Mole Man in all his glory, he’s happy, and the Fantastic Four depart - along with a few of the kidnapped citizens that required some medical attention from falling over all those stolen statues just lying around. I made that last part up.
Despite being dumb, this was an enjoyable read. I especially liked how Mantlo portrayed the Fantastic Four’s interactions with other New Yorker’s while wandering around the city, and Sal Buscema, as far as I’m concerned, was THE Marvel Bronze Age artist. Reading this issue was like sliding my feet into an old pair of slippers - so comfortable.
Annual #14, on sale in October 1979, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Perez (inked by Pablo Marcos) was a perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its’ cover. Behind a rather dull Franklin Richards cover was an unexpected delight; not so much a Fantastic Four story, but a spotlight issue for Agatha Harkness. Who totally kicks ass.
The Fantastic Four (with Franklin) accompany Agatha on her yearly sojourn back to New Salem, so she can lead the New Salemnites (?) in their annual ritual to cleanse their magics. Obviously, Salem’s Seven and Nicholas Scratch get involved and it all goes to hell; but the Fantastic Four are almost incidental in their own book, as it is Agatha who takes the lead in sorting the whole mess out (with a little help from Franklin and his not so dormant cosmic powers).
This issue was thoroughly engrossing, helped not-just-a-little by Perez’ dynamic pencils. Though I’ve never been a fan of Pablo Marcos’ inks, they were tolerable here.
Well worth reading.
Which is not something I can say for Annual #15, on sale in July 1980, written by Doug Moench and drawn by George Perez (inked by Chic Stone), which was was quite frankly a bit of a mess.
I’m not even sure I can summarise the plot for this one; it involves Reed inventing some kind of teleporting machine by accident, some invading Skulls, and Captain Mar-Vell. And some time travel hilarity. Or not.
I never really enjoyed Moench’s time on Fantastic Four, and this issue pretty much cemented my feelings on that. However, there was a really nice back-up story (written by Moench and drawn by Tom Sutton) that shows Zorba failing to maintain his newly liberated Latveria, and the ultimate resurrection of Dr Doom. A lot of nice ideas here about newly democratised people not really feeling the love for their new status quo.
Unemployment, higher taxes, and lots of picketing; yeah, that’ll get you down. What you really need is a megalomaniacal terrorist in charge. Sorted.
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Post by Confessor on Aug 22, 2015 10:28:25 GMT -5
I get what you're saying and I can see why it might be considered a bad idea, but I think the execution of it all is so much fun that that kind of excuses it to a large degree. Was it a mistake on Stan's part, yeah maybe....but with spy drama being so fashionable at the time, you can certainly see the rationale behind this story. And, for me at least, the proof is in the pudding. Spidey is definitely an everyman in part, but he's also led a pretty exceptional life -- both in terms of his superheroing and his private life. Peter Parker ceased to really be an everyman the day he got bitten by a radio-active spider. That's the point, though: if he was the son of murdered SHIELD agents he was never an everyman even before his transformation into a superhero. It turns that event into just one more extraordinary thing about him, as opposed to the idea that it took an ordinary, though intelligent, high-school kid and changed him into something extraordinary. That's a fair point, but in the real world I'm not sure that having parents who are or were spies automatically makes you special or not an everyman. Of course, the circumstances surrounding the Parker's murder were unusual, insofar as it was the Red Skull, a supervillain, who caused them to die in a plane crash using sabotage, but let's not forget that ASM is a superhero comic. As such, I find it hard having a problem with this turn of events within the context of the other extraordinary things that have happened to Peter Parker in his life. That's not to say that I can't see the problems that some readers might have with this back story, but myself, I think that it's just your typical superhero comic nonsense really. And, as I said earlier, given the popularity of spy or espionage dramas at the time (James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Ipcress File etc...not to mention Marvel's own Nick Fury comic), I can certainly understand why Stan Lee choose to have Peter's parents be spies.
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Post by Confessor on Aug 22, 2015 10:52:17 GMT -5
Great review of FF Annual #13, terence1965. Makes me want to read it.
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Post by terence1965 on Aug 22, 2015 12:16:00 GMT -5
Thanks Confessor. That little exercise served to remind me that I have absolutely 1000's of old comics that i haven't re-read in over three decades, and I really don't have to worry about wasting money on mostly dissapointing new comics. There's gold in those old longboxes.
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