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Post by byronlomax on Apr 16, 2016 13:07:57 GMT -5
Reading through some issues of Mike Barr's Maze Agency series, and really enjoying them. The stories are charming and fun, but I completely suck at trying to figure the mysteries out before I get to the end.
Also got hold of an Elementals trade (the original issues by Willingham), and I'm trying to get a start on Mage. I guess I'm having a Comico week.
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Post by Batflunkie on Apr 16, 2016 13:27:32 GMT -5
Always thought Elementals was an interesting riff on the concepts of X-Men, DNAgents too
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Post by String on Apr 16, 2016 19:01:55 GMT -5
Elementals was a terrific series, both volumes. Though both runs suffered near their end when Willingham was less hands on and wasn't even writing the scripts.
Thor #283-285, just getting into the beginning of Thomas' epic Celestial saga.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2016 19:47:16 GMT -5
(I mean, I haven't read Azrael. Let's not go crazy here.) It's basically about this college kid who gets swept up his family's bloodline of devout fellowship to the Order Of Saint Dumas. After he's sufficiently brainwashed, he takes on his late father's mantle of Azazel, the Templar Angel Of Vengeance. Then of course, he becomes the new Batman after Bane shatter's Bruce's spine IDK, just always thought it was an interesting concept I picked up the Azrael trade that they just put out. Never really read much of him other than from Knightfall. I'm interested to check it out.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 17, 2016 12:59:40 GMT -5
I finally finished Showcase Presents: Supergirl, Volume One, and I was completely blown away by the last story arc in the volume! I had never read the story where Superman - FINALLY - reveals Supergirl's existence to the world and thus - FINALLY - Linda can be adopted and - FINALLY - she gets adopted by the Danvers. And I had no idea it was a five-issue story arc! If you've ever read a Silver-Age Superman Family comic book, you know that a lot can happen in five 12-page stories. Just when Superman is about to reveal Supergirl's existence, she loses her powers! And they can't figure out why! And since she has no powers anymore, there's no reason Linda can't be adopted. So she's adopted by the Danvers and is prepared to live out her life as a normal Earth girl who has Superman as a cousin. And a super-cat that can fly and knock over milk trucks. And a robot that looks exactly like her hidden in a tree. Well, now it gets good. They introduce Lesla-Lar! I don't think I've ever heard of her before and - just like that! - she's one of my favorite villains! She lives in Kandor, the bottle city from Krypton that Superman keeps on the dinner table in the Fortress of Solitude. Lesla-Lar is a scientist! And she's evil! And she looks just like Supergirl! She has deprived Linda of her powers with a ray! And she also has a transport beam that she uses to trade places with Linda! This same ray shrinks Linda and makes Lesla-Lar normal-sized. And she also has a device that makes Linda think that she is Lesla-Lar! So she takes Linda's place in the Danvers household and Linda becomes a scientist in Kandor. (My first thought was that Linda (who's now Lesla-Lar) would start scheming against Lesla-Lar (who she thinks is Supergirl) and I was really hoping that would happen because it would have been an awesome development. But it didn't happen.) So, yeah, the next five issues are ABSOLUTELY BONKERS! Lesla-Lar (as Supergirl) allies herself with Lex Luthor, Lesla-Lar convinces Superman that she is the real Supergirl and somehow got her powers back, Lesla-Lar lives in the Danvers house and fools them into thinking she's Linda and so on and so forth for five crazy issues. Mr. Myxzptlk even show up! Highly recommended. Now I want to get Volume Two to see if Lesla-Lar returns! Why do they keep making up lame villains for Supergirl and ignoring Lesla-Lar? Here are the the appropriate summaries on "Jess's (Somewhat) Grown-Up Type Blog": Action Comics #278, "The Unknown Supergirl!"Action Comics #279, "Supergirl's Secrte Enemy!"Action Comics #280, "Trapped in Kandor!"Action Comics #281, "The Secret of the Time-Barrier!" and #282, "The Supergirl of Tomorrow!"
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Post by Batflunkie on Apr 17, 2016 13:57:26 GMT -5
Elementals was a terrific series, both volumes. Though both runs suffered near their end when Willingham was less hands on and wasn't even writing the scripts. The fact that later on the series would turn more into an illustrated softcore porno left a really bad taste in my mouth, really kind of juvenile to be honest
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 17, 2016 14:05:27 GMT -5
This one, from Action Comics #277, is also TOTALLY BONKERS!
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 17, 2016 14:54:07 GMT -5
Elementals was a terrific series, both volumes. Though both runs suffered near their end when Willingham was less hands on and wasn't even writing the scripts. The fact that later on the series would turn more into an illustrated softcore porno left a really bad taste in my mouth, really kind of juvenile to be honest I wasn't going to ask. They did have some borderline covers there.
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Post by berkley on Apr 18, 2016 0:10:12 GMT -5
Cosmic Odyssey is also a great story featuring DC heroes and the New Gods and Darksied. One of my favorite cosmic stories (especially as Marvel's cosmic characters have always been more entertaining for me, makes it a large compliment to DC) and Mike Mignola art. And probably one of the more well known defining moments of GL John Stewart. I hate to be so consistently negative about the New Gods comics DC has produced over the years since Kirby but Cosmic Odyssey was pretty bad from a Fourth World perspective. Starlin was way off the mark with Orion's characterisation in particular and generally did not show a solid grasp of the ideas involved. It may or may not have been a good JLA or a good GL story - I can't really judge - but it most emphatically was not a good New Gods story.
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Post by Batflunkie on Apr 18, 2016 7:56:54 GMT -5
I hate to be so consistently negative about the New Gods comics DC has produced over the years since Kirby but Cosmic Odyssey was pretty bad from a Fourth World perspective. Starlin was way off the mark with Orion's characterisation in particular and generally did not show a solid grasp of the ideas involved. It may or may not have been a good JLA or a good GL story - I can't really judge - but it most emphatically was not a good New Gods story. I don't think you are either, Kirby has a very distinctive literary style that, like Steve Gerber and countless others, is very hard to duplicate on a fundamental level. Too many comic authors these days are focused solely on subversive deconstruction of the cape genre, while Kirby was far more somber, thinking that superheroes represented the absolute heart of humanity by always choosing to do good, even if they had physiologically flawed alter egos
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Apr 18, 2016 9:32:53 GMT -5
Cosmic Odyssey is also a great story featuring DC heroes and the New Gods and Darksied. One of my favorite cosmic stories (especially as Marvel's cosmic characters have always been more entertaining for me, makes it a large compliment to DC) and Mike Mignola art. And probably one of the more well known defining moments of GL John Stewart. I hate to be so consistently negative about the New Gods comics DC has produced over the years since Kirby but Cosmic Odyssey was pretty bad from a Fourth World perspective. Starlin was way off the mark with Orion's characterisation in particular and generally did not show a solid grasp of the ideas involved. It may or may not have been a good JLA or a good GL story - I can't really judge - but it most emphatically was not a good New Gods story. And perhaps I should have said in my original post, that at first read, I had no knowledge of the Fourth World. I like it as a story, but in hindsight it is probably not a good representation of the characters as Kirby intended them too be. Despite that I enjoy it probably for the cosmic drama aspects of it. And again in hindsight, which I didn't convey really well, Orion was almost psychotic. But for me, at least, they are things I can overlook.
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Post by Farrar on Apr 18, 2016 9:33:25 GMT -5
I finally finished Showcase Presents: Supergirl, Volume One, and I was completely blown away by the last story arc in the volume! I had never read the story where Superman - FINALLY - reveals Supergirl's existence to the world and thus - FINALLY - Linda can be adopted and - FINALLY - she gets adopted by the Danvers. And I had no idea it was a five-issue story arc! If you've ever read a Silver-Age Superman Family comic book, you know that a lot can happen in five 12-page stories. ... Hoozh, your post brings back fond memories for me. That multi-issue saga of Supergirl's coming out to the world was collected in this 80-page Giant. I remember seeing this comic in the DC house ads and being mesmerized by the cover. I knew of Supergirl of course but I had no idea of her back story at the time--all I knew was I loved that cover! Alas, I never saw the issue on sale anywhere. A few years later on a family trek to a local park we came across a guy selling some of his comics on the street. Lo and behold, he had this issue! I had to have it and my wonderful dad bought it for me. I loved the serialized format/soap opera-ish feeling of this arc. The stories were well-paced and there was a great progression to Supergirl's story. This particular issue was one of my favorite Silver Age DCs.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Apr 18, 2016 9:36:40 GMT -5
(I mean, I haven't read Azrael. Let's not go crazy here.) It's basically about this college kid who gets swept up his family's bloodline of devout fellowship to the Order Of Saint Dumas. After he's sufficiently brainwashed, he takes on his late father's mantle of Azazel, the Templar Angel Of Vengeance. Then of course, he becomes the new Batman after Bane shatter's Bruce's spine IDK, just always thought it was an interesting concept The Sword of Azrael is probably one of my favorite Batman stories. And Quesada (unless you just don't care for his art at all) at his best. The first 20 issues or so of Azrael I stuck with, but when it distanced itself from the Order of St Dumas and that aspect of the character; and just using him as another vigilante, it lost all appeal to me.
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Post by String on Apr 18, 2016 20:32:10 GMT -5
Elementals was a terrific series, both volumes. Though both runs suffered near their end when Willingham was less hands on and wasn't even writing the scripts. The fact that later on the series would turn more into an illustrated softcore porno left a really bad taste in my mouth, really kind of juvenile to be honest Yeah, that was after Comico was bought out and a complete focus shift happened on the book, which is a shame since the preceding Oblivion War story by Willingham was rather decent. It's sad that it degraded into that type of material and if I remember right, the guy who bought the company still owns the rights to those characters.
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Post by dupersuper on Apr 19, 2016 7:59:57 GMT -5
I hate to be so consistently negative about the New Gods comics DC has produced over the years since Kirby but Cosmic Odyssey was pretty bad from a Fourth World perspective. Starlin was way off the mark with Orion's characterisation in particular and generally did not show a solid grasp of the ideas involved. It may or may not have been a good JLA or a good GL story - I can't really judge - but it most emphatically was not a good New Gods story. And perhaps I should have said in my original post, that at first read, I had no knowledge of the Fourth World. I like it as a story, but in hindsight it is probably not a good representation of the characters as Kirby intended them too be. Despite that I enjoy it probably for the cosmic drama aspects of it. And again in hindsight, which I didn't convey really well, Orion was almost psychotic. But for me, at least, they are things I can overlook. Same here. When you read it before the old 4th World stuff, it reads great (except Batman clearly going for a kill shot fighting a sentient/sapient alien).
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