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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 5, 2016 13:54:57 GMT -5
It's kind of weird to see a comic book hero that usually just tackles mythological villains taking on uber-powerful cosmic beings I mean let's be serious for a moment, could Thor actually wipe the floor with Galactus? Probably not I didn't see the one where Thor wiped the floor with Galactus. It sure didn't happen in any of the issues pictured. I read them in a Thor Epic Collection last year and it truly is an epic collection. (Admittedly, some of the stories at the end were pretty bland.)
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 5, 2016 14:16:26 GMT -5
It's kind of weird to see a comic book hero that usually just tackles mythological villains taking on uber-powerful cosmic beings I mean let's be serious for a moment, could Thor actually wipe the floor with Galactus? Probably not I didn't see the one where Thor wiped the floor with Galactus. It sure didn't happen in any of the issues pictured. I read them in a Thor Epic Collection last year and it truly is an epic collection. (Admittedly, some of the stories at the end were pretty bland.) It was more of a generalization on my part, not the biggest fan of Thor, but the covers with Galactus did have me at least the slightest bit intrigued
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 5, 2016 15:18:20 GMT -5
I didn't see the one where Thor wiped the floor with Galactus. It sure didn't happen in any of the issues pictured. I read them in a Thor Epic Collection last year and it truly is an epic collection. (Admittedly, some of the stories at the end were pretty bland.) It was more of a generalization on my part, not the biggest fan of Thor, but the covers with Galactus did have me at least the slightest bit intrigued I like Thor a lot, but I always had so many other Marvel favorites that I've frequently been rather neglectful. Since I began collecting comics (1975), I've read every 1960 to 1980 story or almost every 1960 to 1980 story for Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, X-Men and I'm not doing too bad on Doctor Strange, Iron Man and the Avengers. But until a year or so ago, there were huge gaps in Thor I hadn't read. Between issue #113 and #240, I had read only about 15 issues. The good thing about it is all the great Silver Age Marvel that I've been reading for the first time! Between Marvel Masterworks and the Epic Collection (which I usually get through the library), I'm finally reading great stuff like the first Absorbing Man, Ego the Living Planet, the Knights of Wundagore and the origin of Galactus! There's still a lot of it I haven't read (I've only read three or four issues between #180 and #240), but it just gives me more Thor to look forward to.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 6, 2016 12:14:32 GMT -5
Aliens, the 1988 Dark Horse miniseries by Mark Verheiden, Mark Nelson and Ron Randall. The aliens franchise has been overexploited to the point of irrelevance, but once upon a time it was a truly gripping tale of cosmic horror. Conceived as a direct sequel to James Cameron's film with the same title, this comic series succeeds on all counts where the other film sequels failed. It is inconceivable to me that the depressing and ultimately pointless Alien 3 struggled for so long with finding a script while this story was available. It's exciting, iit really builds up on the two first movies, and it has a greater scope. What catch phrase would we really have wanted to see on an Alien 3 poster? "More of the same, only less so" or "They're on Earth?" The plot weighs more heavily than do the characters, of which only one is sort of relatable. But what a good plot it is. A decade after the events from the Cameron movie, several Earth powers are interested in the biowarfare potential of the aliens: the US government and at least one corporation. When a freighter returns to Earth orbit with aliens on board, a contaminated pilot is recovered and kept in isolation. The corporation for whom he works intends to let the alien he carries burst forth and be studied, and when it does it turns out to be a queen. Hints of the aliens' telepathic abilities had been given in the Cameron movie; here we see the queen influence certain people through their dreams and beliefs. A fringe "cult" seeing the alien queen as a messianic figure quickly develops, even though the new converts have neve actually seen the creature except during their sleep. The government, meanwhile, thinks it has found the aliens's homeworld and sends a ship over there to gather specimens. Corporal Hicks from the aliens movie, now a scarred and bitterly obsessed nihilist, is sent as an expert. He manages to smuggle Newt aboard, to save the now-grown girl from the lobotomy her recurring nightmares and temper outbursts condemn her to, and to hopefully help her face her fears one final time. The government mission is infiltrated by envoys from the corporation, with two objectives: prevent the state from obtaining a bioweapon the corporation wants to be the sole distributor of, and gather not the aliens themselves... but their eventual natural predators, to be used when the aliens will become obsolete as weapons. The marines aboard ship must be used as prey for all these creepy crawlies. On Earth, as we'd expect, the best laid plans of mice and men go staright down the crapper. The cultists manage to overrun the security detail around the lab where the alien queen is kept, and several of them get infected by face huggers. They are dispersed eventually, but are now out in the open and infected. Little by little, they give birth to new aliens, many of which are queens. As the alien epidemic spreads, testing for the alien spore becomes mandatory. Generals stage several coups, replacing the Earth's governments and using the epidemic as an excuse to eliminate whoever they deem a threat to their power. Far away in space, the corporate spies have taken over the military ship and are sending the marines on the aliens' world under aerial supervision. They do not know about Newt, whose name does not figure on the official roster as she's a stowaway. She will eventually turn the tables on them. The mission fails abysmally as flying creatures kill most of the coprorate men and as aliens massacre most of the marines. These turn out to have been androids all along. Hicks and Newt, after having regained control of their ship, try to bring help to their comrades but their dropship is surrounded and damaged by alien drones. They are saved in extremis by the arrival of a member of the "gunner" species, those elephant-headed dudes from the first alien movie who were retconned into the Engineers in the film Prometheus. That critter hates the aliens for what they did to his old buddy, as he telepathically makes known to Newt. He then follows our heroes back to Earth, his intentions unknown. On Earth, the infection is global and the military is preparing to abandon the planet and nuke it using our old atomic arsenal. The long-term goal is to sterilize the world and come back to terraform it in a few generations. Hicks and Newt manage to escape aboard an old freighter, and the elephant headed gunner leaves this thought in Newt's head: he, too, shares the drive to conquer, and when Earth is terraformed again he will be there to take it from us. I really enjoyed the scope of the miniseries. The absence of Ripley is of course noticeable, but the plot works quite well without her (she can't be the only person who has to deal with these critters!) Hicks and Newt are naturally the best choice to take over from her, and their stupid death in the film series is made even more of a bad decision by showing how welll they could be used. The near future Earth we are shown here is remarkably familiar. Even in those pre-intenet days, the rise of Youtube channels is sort of predicted: we are told that major TV channels became obsolete as communications became less regulated, and that there are now tens of thousands of channels to select from, leading to many, many small-scale productions. The actions of a corporations clashing with national interests is of course extremely familiar, plausible and scary. So is the hubris that leads ine to belive it is possible to contain the aliens in a lab forever, without anything ever going wrong. Newt has a love affair with a marine, without knowing at first that he is an android. After the trauma of realizing that her lover is synthetic, she realizes that when she compares the robot to its engineers, the love of their creation is worth more than the hatred of the creators. Nice sentiment there, and the single note of hope in the story. The meta-message "we blame the aliens but we did it to ourselves" also elevates this story to something more than a simple adventure yarn. This should have been Alien 3.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2016 11:46:07 GMT -5
Sat down and reread the original Marvel Comics Star Wars #1-6 the adaptation of A New Hope. Quite a different experience from the last time I'd read them several years ago. Instead of opening up some floppies that i'd picked up at a used book store - complete with old comic smell- I bought these digitally and read them on my Ipad. But despite the differences in format, those old issues can still transport me away to the place I was when the expanded Star Wars universe was a much smaller place and the simple act of buying a few back issues for a buck a piece at that used book store made me the happiest kid in the world.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,085
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Post by Confessor on Mar 8, 2016 12:33:10 GMT -5
Sat down and reread the original Marvel Comics Star Wars #1-6 the adaptation of A New Hope. Quite a different experience from the last time I'd read them several years ago. Instead of opening up some floppies that i'd picked up at a used book store - complete with old comic smell- I bought these digitally and read them on my Ipad. But despite the differences in format, those old issues can still transport me away to the place I was when the expanded Star Wars universe was a much smaller place and the simple act of buying a few back issues for a buck a piece at that used book store made me the happiest kid in the world. That is a flawed and uneven, but, at times, wonderful adaptation of the first Star Wars movie. I'm currently reviewing the entire original Marvel SW series in this thread... classiccomics.boards.net/thread/1039/star-wars-marvel-reviews-confessor...so feel free to chime in with any thoughts or (gasp!) disagreements you might have with my reviews of those first six issues.
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ziza9
Junior Member
Posts: 32
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Post by ziza9 on Mar 8, 2016 13:43:55 GMT -5
Read these last night after picking them up in a quarter bin at Pulp Fiction in Culver City: Nth Man #11 (cool stuff, not sure why I passed on this back in the day, but I want to grab the rest of the run now.); Hellstorm: Prince of Lies #10-11 (Len Kaminski, Peter Gross. Filling in the gaps in the series); Strike!#4 (Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle for Eclipse).
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Mar 8, 2016 14:31:33 GMT -5
@ RR
That's a good assessment of the series. I really enjoyed it, even though I read it after reading the second Aliens series. Now I have the Outbreak TPB, and it's said in the forward that there were changes in it, from the original issues, that help line it up with the movie franchise. So I don't remember what all changes were made, as I long sold my original ones, when they were at peak worth.
The only thing in your post I would disagree with is that this story should be Alien 3. If anything this series was a better movies than Aliens, and this should be what Aliens wasn't. :-) BUt that's the good thing about the Aliens novels and comics, that they took the franchise in better places than the films did. The novel (and to a smaller extent, because it's so short in comparison) and comics of Music of the Spears is one of the most interesting uses of the aliens in fiction. Now, I'd like that story to be a film.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 8, 2016 15:21:36 GMT -5
@ RR That's a good assessment of the series. I really enjoyed it, even though I read it after reading the second Aliens series. Now I have the Outbreak TPB, and it's said in the forward that there were changes in it, from the original issues, that help line it up with the movie franchise. So I don't remember what all changes were made, as I long sold my original ones, when they were at peak worth. If I'm not mistaken, Newt and Hicks were changed to other characters. Heh! Heh! We'll have to agree to disagree on this one as I think Aliens is one of the finest action films ever filmed and something of a masterpiece in its own right! A friend of mine really hated the way the visceral horror of the original film was replaced by an elaborate bug hunt, but personally I didn't mind the change in tone since the tension was still there. Watching the documentary on the film's production, I was also amazed by all the care that went into it. Aliens 3, meanwhile, started with no script... 20th Century Fox needed a cash infusion and thought the franchise could provide it. A first story treatment about monks living in a wooden space station was written, but that monastery was turned into a gloomy space prison because it was cheaper. The first director quit after a while because the studio didn't really know what it wanted, and the movie was only finished thanks to the energy of its young new director. Even so, the relentlessly depressing tone of Alien 3 and the lack of any emotion other than grief and despair made watching it an unpleasant experience for me! I had big hopes for Prometheus. The incorporation of some preliminary concepts left unused from the original Alien was very encouraging, but I think the film failed on several levels : too much in the way of revelations, a convoluted continuity ("these are not the chest-bursted elephant-headed pilots in a crashed starship you're looking for"), and something I really, really, really didn't need : an "origin" for the aliens! My only hope for the future of the franchise is that the aliens are an existing species that the Engineers became fascinated with (as suggested by the fact there's an alien queen sculpted on one of their walls) and are trying to reverse-engineer with to their bioactive black goo, and not something they created themselves.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Mar 8, 2016 21:40:10 GMT -5
Yeah I'm very skeptical about the future of Promethius too.
And I don't dislike Aliens I just think it has more cons than pros. I commented on Aliens and Alien 3 over in the Community forum in this months movie theme thread that explains my thoughts on it. And copy and paste on my phone is annoying lol
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 8, 2016 21:41:09 GMT -5
I got a bunch of comics yesterday. Including a coverless copy of this for ninety-nine cents: It's hilarious. Batman and Robin are fighting the Crime Rocket but they just can't quite cope, so Superman shows up, but the Crime Rocket has a Kryptonite ray, so Superman can't attack it directly. So Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite show up and start using their magic, but it's a weird mixture and they accidentally create a weird monster that turns into a giant porcupine and then a giant magnet monster with a ping-pong ball face. And they have no control over the monsters. It's totally nuts. But the best thing is the Crime Rocket! It's just a rocket that goes around and lands and the bad guys tumble out and rob factory payrolls. And the gang that operates it is just a bunch of generic 1950s comic-book gangsters! They're all wearing suits and fedoras and waving gats. (And since it's a bunch of generic comic book gangsters, they're wearing orange or purple or burgundy suits! If you expect the gang that operates the Crime Rocket to wear spacesuits, you are sadly mistaken! It's true! Superman, Batman, Robin, Bat-Mite, Mr. Mxyzptlk and the ping-pong ball-headed magnet monster all got upstaged by the Crime Rocket!
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 8, 2016 21:46:27 GMT -5
I also got this: So I now have every issue of Detective Comics from #421 to #881!
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Post by Action Ace on Mar 8, 2016 21:57:03 GMT -5
I also got this: So I now have every issue of Detective Comics from #421 to #881! I missed out on this one as a kid too. But I was back for the Calculator finale in #468.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 8, 2016 22:13:55 GMT -5
Here's another one I got: The first story has art by Kurt Schaffenberger! So it's pretty cool! But the second story (the one on the cover) is just nuts! Supergirl wakes up with amnesia, and she's at the Smallville Orphanage, for some reason, and they're trying to find some parents for her. And Krypto shows up, but they don't get along and Supergirl wonders why she ever wanted STUPID KRYPTO for a pet, which makes Krypto all indignant because he's not Supergirl's pet, and they both fly off in a couple of snits. And while flying around Smallville, she recognizes the Kent house and she burrows into it. She thinks there used to be a secret laboratory in the basement. And then she's messing about in the attic and finds a secret compartment where there are a couple of Superboy robots and a couple of young Clark Kent robots. They fly off and Supergirl follows them. They put flowers on the graves of Jonathan and Martha Kent. This really upsets Supergirl! Why are they throwing weeds on the graves of HER PARENTS! Then another Supergirl shows up. This time it's the real Supergirl. The other one is a Supergirl robot! She was just recently constructed at the Fortress of Solitude and Supergirl gave her the wrong memory tape. Fortunately, Krypto thought she was acting strangely and went and got the real Supergirl. Now, mind you, Supergirl, one Supergirl robot, two Superboy robots and two young Clark Kent robots are standing around chatting at the Smallville Cemetery, and Superman shows up with a wreath for the Kents' grave. It's a long story, Superman, says Supergirl. I'll tell you all about it later at the Fortress of Solitude. I like the Supergirl TV show, but I really wish they'd do an homage episode to stories like this. Just one! And where's Streaky?
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 10, 2016 13:51:09 GMT -5
I'm still reading Showcase Presents: Supergirl, Volume One, but I took a few days off because I'm getting ahead of myself and I haven't had time to write very much in the way of reviews. AND THE PUBLIC MUST BE TOLD! Some of these stories demand a lot of space in order to do them justice. Like the one where Supergirl gets turned into a baby after rescuing someone in a magic pool. Or the first Streaky story. Or the second Streaky story. Or any story with Streaky in it. Or the one where Supergirl feels sad that Lois and Superman can't get together so she tries to set up romantic and often manipulative situations so they can realize how they feel and get married. And it just keeps turning out wrong! (Lois throws herself on the couch and cries a lot.) This was reprinted from Lois Lane's own comic book so it has great Kurt Schaffenberger art! But I had to skip ahead to talk about this one. How do you make a Supergirl story even more bonkers? That's right! You throw Jimmy Olsen into the mix! First off: Yeah. That is one crazy orphanage. Perry White sends Jimmy to report on a flood somewhere, and he warns Jimmy that Superman is on a mission in space and won't be back for a few days, so Jimmy better not get into a crazy, dangerous situation where only Superman can save him. (So, Jimmy, act like a normal person with some sense!) (Later it turns out that not only do they know what day Superman is expected back, they know he is expected at exactly 5:00 in the afternoon. Which I find hilarious, for some reason. "Using my super-punctuality, I will return at exactly 5:00 p.m. So have the parade and feast and dancing girls ready, mortals!") So Jimmy goes to the flooded community and sees a helpless cat floating by on a cushion and he jumps in and saves it, but a log hits his head and he's knocked unconscious and wakes up with amnesia. So what do you do with a young adult who has amnesia after a flood and is assumed to be a flood survivor? In this community, you assume all his relatives have been killed and you put him in an orphanage. And the nearest orphanage is ... Midvale Orphanage! (Yup. That is one crazy orphanage.) Well, Linda (Supergirl) Lee recognizes Jimmy immediately but she's concerned with keeping her identity a secret, so she decides to wait until Superman comes back and then let him handle it. Hijinks ensue! It's mostly pretty dumb but HILARIOUS! A couple shows up to adopt Jimmy (and everybody knows that if you want to adopt a 20-year-old man, Midvale Orphanage is the place to go). Jimmy's pretty excited about it, but Linda has to put a stop to it because everyone's heart will be broken in a few days when Jimmy's memory returns and he realizes that he's twenty years old and it's ridiculous for anybody to adopt him. So fast-thinking Linda uses her heat-vision to melt the lock on the door to Jimmy's room, so the couple won't adopt him because he's taking too long. (They stopped to adopt a child on the way to the movie and they hate to walk in late!) Jimmy gets his memory back and decides to pretend to be an orphan so he can write a story called "I Lived in an Orphanage" for the Daily Planet. So the next time he almost gets adopted, he really doesn't want to be adopted! But Linda helps out (even though Jimmy doesn't know it) by messing with the glasses of the prospective parents so that Jimmy looks fat. Because Linda knows that fat orphans don't deserve to be adopted and loved. And it works! They don’t reject him because he's twenty years old! They reject him because they think he's fat! There's two pages to go. Just as Jimmy is about to discover the Linda Lee robot hidden in a tree, Superman returns (at 5:00 p.m., as planned) and Linda's secret is safe! Man. That is one weird orphanage. The story ends without letting us know whether Perry White liked Jimmy's idea for an inside look at Midvale Orphanage and its bizarre procedures.
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