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Post by Duragizer on Aug 6, 2019 18:10:05 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #21 corny... or a message still needed?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2019 20:08:59 GMT -5
Batman and the Incredible HulkThis is got to be one of the strangest crossover that Marvel and DC put together and it has everything under the sun and more. I was not expecting Shaper of the World in this book and he was an unexpected treat and it was enjoyable read for sure and this book makes you slow down and enjoy the writing of Len Wein that's was a pleasure to read.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 7, 2019 13:53:23 GMT -5
Batman and the Incredible HulkThis is got to be one of the strangest crossover that Marvel and DC put together and it has everything under the sun and more. I was not expecting Shaper of the World in this book and he was an unexpected treat and it was enjoyable read for sure and this book makes you slow down and enjoy the writing of Len Wein that's was a pleasure to read. I read this some time in the past year and I really enjoyed it. I'd rate it pretty closely with the two Superman/Spider-Man crossovers from this era.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Aug 7, 2019 14:51:39 GMT -5
So, I read the first trade paperback volume of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman this week, Preludes & Nocturnes. It's a series that I have been wanting to read for a long, long time...mostly due to things people I trust here in the CCF have said about it. Also, a comic reading buddy of mine, whose taste I trust implicitly, called it the best comic series he'd ever read. I have to say that I found the first volume to be rather hit and miss. But that's OK because I was kinda prepared for that, since I'd heard it takes a few volumes to really get going as a series. I do think that it started off very strongly, with the first issue being a brilliant read that really hooked me into the story and made me desperate to get into issue #2. The second issue itself was slightly less intriguing than the first, but it fleshed the story out quite a bit and was an enjoyable read. From then on, the story kinda seems as if Gaiman is just throwing all sorts of different stuff at the wall to see what sticks. For example, the usage of the two hosts from DC's old horror comics in chapter three is cute, but it also seems really out of whack with the ambience and atmosphere that Gaiman established in issues #1 and #2. Likewise, the chapter involving Doctor Destiny sitting in a diner read like a lot of other "for mature readers" comics from the 1990s, with some rather immature "oh-so-gritty" violence and mutilations randomly thrown in for no good reason. This chapter in particular made the book seem more like what a 15-year-old boy would think of as "mature writing", as opposed to what mature writing really is. But that said, parts of Preludes & Nocturnes are excellent, with Gaiman's writing being almost up to Alan Moore's standards (which is high praise indeed, coming from this reader). I liked the book's central protagonist, Dream (or Morpheus), a lot. He looks suitably otherworldly, as the lord and personification of dreaming should, with an air of wisdom and gravitas to him, while also cutting a lonely and slightly tragic figure. Dream's sister, Death, makes her first appearance in the book's final chapter, "The Sound of Her Wings", and it is here where the book really hits its stride and redeems itself after those earlier missteps. Now, I just want to say that I initially had misgivings about the character of Death. I mean, having her look like a cute teenage Goth chick might've seemed edgy in the early '90s, but reading this as a 40-something man in 2019 just induced severe eye-rolling from me. However, this final chapter is so masterfully written and so beautifully rendered artistically, that I actually found myself being quite moved by it -- which is a rarity for me when it comes to comics. By the time "The Sound of Her Wings" had worked its magic on me, my earlier misgivings about Death's appearance were rendered utterly irrelevant. So, yeah...overall, I liked Preludes & Nocturnes a fair bit. I was expecting it to be a little uneven – which it certainly is – so that's not a deal breaker, and I did enjoy it while I was reading. I'm definitely looking forward to starting volume two, The Doll's House, tonight.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 8, 2019 20:09:52 GMT -5
Super-Team Family #11-14, the quest for Jean Loring saga (The Atom's Fiancée). I think this is best described as a bit of running around (different planets and dimensions then back to Earth) with various baddies (including some with ropey names like T.O. Morrow or dopey costume-shticks like some space pirates with eye-patches and parrots) saved by decent artwork. Gerry Conway is a decent writer but this is nothing outstanding or memorable despite the extra length to each of the four parts. The first and final parts were the better ones. The Atom comes off as rather unlikable here because he is overly emotive (although Hawkman at least comments on this in #12 and worries about him, and he should know him well as they teamed up often in the past), but this is not much like the '60s Fox/Kane character. I like stories where problems are solved logically and there is some of that here, and some that is, well Aquaman ordering dozens of southern octopi north miraculously quickly to shield NYC from a giant wave with a barrier of themselves and junk from the ocean, or The Atom shrinking to sub-sub-atomic size to slip past molecules or enter Jean's messed-up brain seem a little dodgey. Captain Comet lets a volcano drain in an opposite direction away from Seoul, South Korea (and there is mention of it's government still deciding if it is friendly with the west, in 1977?), and Hawkman uses his anti-gravity chest disc to fashion a device which seemed more examples of logic rather than desperation. The art in #11 is Alan Weiss and Joe Rubenstein and the lettercols of #13 & 14 are mostly raves about a Farrah Fawcett-ish (I'd say more Cheryl Ladd-ish) Supergirl. #12-14 is Arvell Jones with Bill Draut on #12, and Romeo Tanghal on the final two. There's also a tie-in with the Secret Society Of Super-Villians title with these last two parts.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 9, 2019 13:29:39 GMT -5
Awesome, beccabear67! I read some of those Super-Team Family issues a few months ago. I thought the Jean Loring thing was fun, though a bit weird at times.
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 12, 2019 21:19:37 GMT -5
Wetworks #1 & #2 Felt so good to get back into this series. It's honestly the best kind of junk food The story revolves around a black ops military group sent into Transylvania to disarm a biological weapon(s) that turns out to be a metallic gold symbiotes of incredible power. However, they were expected to die at the hands of the terrorist organization that just so happened to be a group of Vampires called "The Night Tribes" who want to wipe out humanity at any cost. They later align themselves, at the behest of a rogue agent named Mother One, with Waering Industries who want the Night Tribes gone for their own reasons that I won't reveal because they may or may not be perceived as spoilers
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 12, 2019 23:02:23 GMT -5
Itching for some action with those slap-happy battle-hardened regular Joe's of the merry Marvel universe, but tired of seeing bridges and jeeps? This might be the one-off story for you... Not surprisingly Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandos wasn't so much a war comic as a Marvel team book with all the dad-blamed Shickelgruber-hating dialogue you could shake a goldbricking yap-flapping brand Ecch fan at, whatever that means. In other words you could dump them in space and it didn't change much to answer the cover question. It's WWII in space, complete with attacks on Pearl Harbor and a Battle Of Midway, only with reptilian aliens who are just evil (instead of the Axis foes who are just evil because they're Axis foes)! Not so much Star-Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato though as instead of someone's green hair blowing in the vacuum of space, you get to see Fury with a cigar inside his space helmet, Dum-Dum Dugan with his bowler on inside his space helmet, and Gabe blowing (again from inside his helmet) a weaponized bugle held up to his glass fishbowl! This ain't no E.C. or Robert Kanigher comic book, no Enemy Ace with any real motivations and relational conflicts, not even an Archie Goodwin edited Warren mag, this is wah-hoo action, blam blam, zap; guys calling each other and the enemy every name that can be thought of and stay G rated. To be fair the writers do make a point of there not being sounds in space, and in other small ways let you know they know that you know... etc., "this is just for funzies". I had this back in the day and was curious to see and read it again. It seemed a bit better as a memory, but it entertained me for a little while better than many of the old Lee & Ayers regular editions I saw did. Now John Severin issues are another thing, but the Stan Lee dialogue was always a bouncy patented fantasy which in a real war zone would have gotten partway through the name-calling before one of the good guys would've had his always lit cheroot and half his face removed. "Come on ya lily-livered buncha 'gack' Urk! glug glug"... in real life not all Nazis were terrible shots continually bellowing "Amerikaner sweinhundts" Definitely a bad influence, but with a sort of grade z Roboshark movie charm. Cameo by Baron Strucker included.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Aug 13, 2019 15:28:31 GMT -5
The guy in the next cubicle where I work was a comic reader back in the early-mid 80s and yesterday he brought me a box of comics that he had "stored" back then and presumably hadn't looked at since, judging by the state of them. I tried to dissuade him, but he knows I am a collector and he hasn't had any interest in comics for several decades. He believes, rightly, that they are going to a good home. I spent the morning organizing and assessing the books and found many that I'd like to read (some What If, a few Weird War Stories with the Creature Commandos, some G.I. Combat, and a good chunk of ROM, including the first 10 issues). There were also a couple of real gems in there: Teen Titans 34, 37, 43, 44 and Annuals 2 & 3 in quite decent shape. They include the first appearances of Nightwing, Jericho and Vigilante, the origin of Deathstroke and 3 of the 4 parts of The Judas Contract. I'd never read any of these (though I'm aware of the significance of this era of the Titans) and they were terrific, everything that fans have raved about and more. Gorgeous George's art is outstanding as always. Wolfman's writing is strong. Poor Terra.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 14, 2019 4:36:59 GMT -5
The guy in the next cubicle where I work was a comic reader back in the early-mid 80s and yesterday he brought me a box of comics that he had "stored" back then and presumably hadn't looked at since, judging by the state of them. I tried to dissuade him, but he knows I am a collector and he hasn't had any interest in comics for several decades. He believes, rightly, that they are going to a good home. I spent the morning organizing and assessing the books and found many that I'd like to read (some What If, a few Weird War Stories with the Creature Commandos, some G.I. Combat, and a good chunk of ROM, including the first 10 issues). There were also a couple of real gems in there: Teen Titans 34, 37, 43, 44 and Annuals 2 & 3 in quite decent shape. They include the first appearances of Nightwing, Jericho and Vigilante, the origin of Deathstroke and 3 of the 4 parts of The Judas Contract. I'd never read any of these (though I'm aware of the significance of this era of the Titans) and they were terrific, everything that fans have raved about and more. Gorgeous George's art is outstanding as always. Wolfman's writing is strong. Poor Terra. That's a nice gesture by your co-worker. A few years back someone at my job gave me a stack of Marvel and other comic magazines and included was the Epic issue that had the first appearance of Dreadstar. To many people, comics are just something taking up space in their house.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 14, 2019 4:41:04 GMT -5
Batman and the Incredible HulkThis is got to be one of the strangest crossover that Marvel and DC put together and it has everything under the sun and more. I was not expecting Shaper of the World in this book and he was an unexpected treat and it was enjoyable read for sure and this book makes you slow down and enjoy the writing of Len Wein that's was a pleasure to read. I read this some time in the past year and I really enjoyed it. I'd rate it pretty closely with the two Superman/Spider-Man crossovers from this era. I only remember two things from this book 1. Batman kicks the Hulk in the stomach to make him exhale thus knocking him out from gas inhalation 2. The Hulk wearing a beanie
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 14, 2019 4:44:52 GMT -5
Wetworks #1 & #2 Felt so good to get back into this series. It's honestly the best kind of junk food The story revolves around a black ops military group sent into Transylvania to disarm a biological weapon(s) that turns out to be a metallic gold symbiotes of incredible power. However, they were expected to die at the hands of the terrorist organization that just so happened to be a group of Vampires called "The Night Tribes" who want to wipe out humanity at any cost. They later align themselves, at the behest of a rogue agent named Mother One, with Waering Industries who want the Night Tribes gone for their own reasons that I won't reveal because they may or may not be perceived as spoilers I think after 20 plus years, we can wave the spoiler rule. The true sad part of this series is that Whilce Portacio missed out on getting rich overnight like the other Image dudes. because one of his family members got sick and he didn't release the book during the initial period when the rest of them did.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 14, 2019 5:04:28 GMT -5
Deathmate Red, Yellow, BlueEvery few years I dare to take this series out to see if it gets any better or why it was such a disappointment. These two companies were the hottest properties in the comic world in the mid 90's and it should have been an amazing event. Apparently the magnitude of this crossover still didn't motivate the Image guys to actually sit down and do the work and created a delay that killed all momentum for the event. That being said, the books released by the Valiant side, wasn't half bad. But they were always a professional company even after Shooter was ousted. Deathmate Red was a mess with Liefeld spearheading most of the artwork, and had a storyline that was forgettable. And violated the Cardinal sin of being released months AFTER the final chapter was in the comic shops. The Plot- A heartbroken Solar meets up with the Wildcats Void and their union shatters both worlds and creates a universe that is combined but that is coming to an end because of cosmic mumbo jumbo.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Aug 14, 2019 8:18:14 GMT -5
Deathmate Red, Yellow, Blue So that's a CGC "10." Don't think I've ever seen one. Didn't think it was possible. I wonder how long before we see a "10.5."
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 14, 2019 10:02:10 GMT -5
Deathmate Red, Yellow, BlueEvery few years I dare to take this series out to see if it gets any better or why it was such a disappointment. These two companies were the hottest properties in the comic world in the mid 90's and it should have been an amazing event. Apparently the magnitude of this crossover still didn't motivate the Image guys to actually sit down and do the work and created a delay that killed all momentum for the event. That being said, the books released by the Valiant side, wasn't half bad. But they were always a professional company even after Shooter was ousted. Deathmate Red was a mess with Liefeld spearheading most of the artwork, and had a storyline that was forgettable. And violated the Cardinal sin of being released months AFTER the final chapter was in the comic shops. The Plot- A heartbroken Solar meets up with the Wildcats Void and their union shatters both worlds and creates a universe that is combined but that is coming to an end because of cosmic mumbo jumbo. Did Deathmate really almost bankrupt Valiant like so many have stated or was it just a gross over exaggeration?
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