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Post by urrutiap on Mar 9, 2019 22:30:42 GMT -5
The Tarkin was interesting but kind of odd looking.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 10, 2019 5:23:23 GMT -5
Just got through reading these last night... ...which collect a bunch of Capt. Britain stories from various Marvel UK publications in the early 1980s, written by Alan Moore, Alan Davis and Jamie Delano, with all of the art by Davis. I mostly enjoyed them, although I liked the stories penned by Moore the best. Those were also interesting because the individual installments were shorter, so a lot had to be packed into fewer pages, but Moore was up to the task. And it was also interesting to finally read the story in which the term 'Earth 616' first appeared - and seeing all of the alternate versions of Capt. Britain from the multiverse. The art by Davis is, of course, eye-candy. It's got me interested in reading Excalibur, at least the initial run of issues.
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Post by Duragizer on Mar 10, 2019 22:31:32 GMT -5
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Post by urrutiap on Mar 11, 2019 11:24:15 GMT -5
I have that very same issue of Sensational Spider Man. I still think that series is underrated
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 12, 2019 8:36:14 GMT -5
I'm gong through my Legion of Super-Heroes issues, and I've recently read Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #223-225. #223 has the Legion mostly battling the Time Trapper in a sort of psychedelic battle. #224 stars Pulsar Stargrave! One of my favorite Legion villains. It's Disco Brainiac! Pulsar was actually observing in #223 and apparently was manipulating the Time Trapper. #224 ends with this great cliffhanger with Pulsar convincing the Legion to help him defeat Modru (and ultimately rule the universe) and an apparent relationship between Pulsar and Stargrave. However, #225 has nothing to do with this, as Paul Levitz takes over for Jim Shooter and this interesting plot is totally dropped. Levitz is my favorite Legion write but it would have been nice if he'd finished this story. #225 is a nice debut, though it didn't blow me awy. They're back to two stories per issue instead of one. While I like that the backup stories focus on a small number of Legionnaires, so we can get to know them better, I think it's pretty tough to tell a good story in 11 pages, so I'd prefer one longer story.
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 12, 2019 15:00:50 GMT -5
I'm gong through my Legion of Super-Heroes issues, and I've recently read Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #223-225. Almost synchronized, I've been working a bit randomly on issues from #207-220 with stories by Cary Bates and Jim Shooter. Some issues are a bit more simplistic and gimmicky aimed at younger readers I might say but then there are some that are much better, about even between the two writers. Shooter seems to still use the one member acting strangely springboard that was used in the '60s while Bates doesn't. Looking at unread #218-220 looks like there are longer and more involved stories starting in place of the two short stories they had been doing each issue. Mike Grell art varies from obviously rushed and/or finished by someone else to some of his best full art. By these later ones there are some genuinely impressive moments! I wonder if Tyroc's super scream power owes something to seeing Banshee in the new X-Men just before these?
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 12, 2019 16:09:58 GMT -5
I'm gong through my Legion of Super-Heroes issues, and I've recently read Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #223-225. Almost synchronized, I've been working a bit randomly on issues from #207-220 with stories by Cary Bates and Jim Shooter. Some issues are a bit more simplistic and gimmicky aimed at younger readers I might say but then there are some that are much better, about even between the two writers. Shooter seems to still use the one member acting strangely springboard that was used in the '60s while Bates doesn't. Looking at unread #218-220 looks like there are longer and more involved stories starting in place of the two short stories they had been doing each issue. Mike Grell art varies from obviously rushed and/or finished by someone else to some of his best full art. By these later ones there are some genuinely impressive moments! I wonder if Tyroc's super scream power owes something to seeing Banshee in the new X-Men just before these? Interesting you should say that about Grell's art because in #223 in particular most of it looks really fantastic, but there are a few panels that look like they were drawn by a different artist, and not a very good one. Good Tyroc-Banshee analogy. Sonic scream = random inexplicable powers including flight.
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Post by Mormel on Mar 14, 2019 4:18:16 GMT -5
Once more, going thru the X-Men chronologically, I'm currently reading my X-Men Masterworks vol. 7, which covers the first half of the X-Men's 'titleless' period from 1970-1975. I read Amazing Spider-Man 92, Incredible Hulk 150, Amazing Adventures 11-14, and Marvel Team Up 4. A lot of fun to go through these and get a sort of timeline of what was happening to the X-Men between #66 and Giant Size X-Men. For example, Amazing Adventures reveals that the X-Men were laying low following their destructive battle with the Hulk in Las Vegas in #66, and only went out of hiding to rescue a colleague of Xavier's in Marvel Team Up 4, accounting for their long absence.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 14, 2019 5:48:50 GMT -5
Once more, going thru the X-Men chronologically, I'm currently reading my X-Men Masterworks vol. 7, which covers the first half of the X-Men's 'titleless' period from 1970-1975. I read Amazing Spider-Man 92, Incredible Hulk 150, Amazing Adventures 11-14, and Marvel Team Up 4. A lot of fun to go through these and get a sort of timeline of what was happening to the X-Men between #66 and Giant Size X-Men. For example, Amazing Adventures reveals that the X-Men were laying low following their destructive battle with the Hulk in Las Vegas in #66, and only went out of hiding to rescue a colleague of Xavier's in Marvel Team Up 4, accounting for their long absence. That's interesting. Did you ever read X-men the Hidden years ? I wonder how , if at all, Byrne works those issues you read into his run.
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Post by Mormel on Mar 14, 2019 7:18:40 GMT -5
That's interesting. Did you ever read X-men the Hidden years ? I wonder how , if at all, Byrne works those issues you read into his run. I didn't. I read the synposes of those issues in an X-Men 'book club' style thread that ran in the old X-Boards on CBR before the wipe. But in general, I was never that interested in series that retroactively 'fill in the gaps'. That, plus too much time spent in the Savage Land and it turning out they knew Storm all along, and I figured Hidden Years wouldn't be my cup of tea.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 14, 2019 7:51:19 GMT -5
I read Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #226. Levitz (with penciller Jim Sherman, as Mike Grell is sadly gone - apparently he's had enough of doing the Legion, according to the letter column) introduces Dawnstar. While I liked the story overall, it was rushed. Wildfire just brings Dawnstar in and brings her along on a mission. No mention of how he found her or anything about her. Also, at the end he just goes and offers her membership. Again, too rushed. Well, that's what happens when you try to squeeze two stories per issue and you've only got 12 pages to work with. And reall,y the story was only 11 pages as DC still maddeningly at this point wastes the splash page as basically a second cover. In the backup story, Levitz thankfully picks up the Pulsar Stargrave story. He now reveals that Pulsar is nor Braniac 5's father, but rather the original Brainiac. I wonder is Jim Shooter had that in mind when he introduced Pular just a few issues ago. Also, while I was under the impression that the rest of the Legion would help Brainy to help Pulsar, here it's just Brainy helping him, at least initially. This leads to what it appears will be a further chapter in this story in the next issue.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 14, 2019 8:08:33 GMT -5
Been reading through the Dark Horse comics Tarzan Omnibus collecting their run of stories from 1995 to 1998. Some stories have Tarzan in his jungle while others take him into adventures into the cities of Europe facing historical figures and characters of his time like the Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde and such. Makes for some entertaining reading with a plentiful variety of stories. While the stories do also include Jane and other Tarzan characters the focus remains upon John Clayton the Earl of Greystoke as he walks in both worlds of civilization and the jungle and finds that the so called civilized world is not quite as civilized at it proclaims and that the world of nature is more humane than most would believe. While none of this may be considered "classic or great" they are very wonderfully creative takes upon ERB's man of the apes. Truly gorgeous art as well illustrating these stories. I missed out on these at the time due to my own life adventures but now am so glad to having read them.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,065
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Post by Confessor on Mar 14, 2019 8:36:05 GMT -5
I recently read Amazing Spider-Man #141 and #142, featuring Spidey facing off against Mysterio -- although it's Daniel Berkhart under the goldfish bowl, rather than Quentin Beck (since the original Mysterio had "seemingly" died in prison). These are some really enjoyable Gerry Conway issues, and it's during this story that Spidey loses the Spider-Mobile in the Hudson river, and first spots the Gwen Stacy clone in a crowded street -- serving as a lead-in to the original Clone Saga in issues #144-150. Ross Andru's artwork is great throughout. I'm a big fan of his, and there's plenty of his meticulously detailed street scenes in these issues, along with his vertigo-inducing renditions of Spidey's web-slinging exploits; nobody drew Spidey swinging over the city of New York better than Andru, IMO. I also read the Tintin adventure Land of Black Gold, which I'll be reviewing in the next day or two over in my Tintin review thread.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 14, 2019 8:45:49 GMT -5
Ross Andru's artwork is great throughout. I'm a big fan of his, and there's plenty of his meticulously detailed street scenes in these issues, along with his vertigo-inducing renditions of Spidey's web-slinging exploits; nobody drew Spidey swinging over the city of New York better than Andru, IMO. Happy to see another Andru Spidey lover. Ross Andru's Spider-Man along with Sal Buscema's was "MY" Spidey while growing up and I loved how dizzying his skyline web zipping Spidey made me feel. Truly creative, giving an extra excitement to the pages. And like you said, nobody did those street scenes like Andru. As good as they were at the time, I gained even more admiration, respect and awe when finally able for reading the Andru run in Black and White in the Essentials. Really wonderful!
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 14, 2019 8:48:22 GMT -5
That's interesting. Did you ever read X-men the Hidden years ? I wonder how , if at all, Byrne works those issues you read into his run. I didn't. I read the synposes of those issues in an X-Men 'book club' style thread that ran in the old X-Boards on CBR before the wipe. But in general, I was never that interested in series that retroactively 'fill in the gaps'. That, plus too much time spent in the Savage Land and it turning out they knew Storm all along, and I figured Hidden Years wouldn't be my cup of tea. That's a pet peeve of mine when a writer fills in the blanks and connect everything that wasn't in evidence the fist time around. I heard that Mary Jane knew of Spider-mans ID in that book that was an Untold tales book years before she was told. And that extends with me to the bringing back of Bucky after 50 years, it might have spawned a movie but I never liked it.
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