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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 19, 2019 12:23:23 GMT -5
Avengers: Falcon (tpb, 2014) collecting: Falcon 1-4 (1983), Captain America 117-119 (1969), Marvel Premiere 49 (1979) and the Falcon back-up stories from Captain America 276-278 (1982) Published to coincide with the Falcon's motion picture debut in the MCU, this collects a bunch of stories featuring a character that bears only the vaguest resemblance to his cinematic counterpart. Not that that bothered me, as I just wanted these, mainly Bronze Age, stories. I read them in chronological order, so I read the 1983 mini last. And speaking of that mini, this is the first time I'd ever read it; I recall when it came out back in the day, but for some reason I never picked it up, even though I was really into the other minis Marvel was putting out back then (e.g. Hercules, Hawkeye, etc.). Didn't enjoy as much as I thought it would: there's some good ideas in there and a few nice and a few humorous scenes, but at that early point in his career, it's apparent that James Owsley (now better known as Christopher Priest) was still learning his craft. The art was also uneven. The first issue, which was apparently originally supposed to appear in Marvel Fanfare, was drawn by Paul Smith. The remaining three were drawn by Mark D. Bright who, again, looks like he was still sharpening his skills at this point (I've seen his later work, which is uniformly quite nice). Otherwise, the book gets high marks for me for including Falc's original appearances in Capt. America (by Lee and Colan), as well as the story in Marvel Premiere (by Evanier and Sal Buscema) and the back-ups from Capt. America in 1982 (by DeMatteis and Zeck) that was a laudable attempt to clear up that whole wish-it-never-happened 'Snap Wilson' retcon from Englehart's run.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 19, 2019 14:17:34 GMT -5
The Ultra -Humanite made appearances in the Roy Thomas books in the 80's and also in a crossover between the JLA/JSA. I didn't seem like he cared about the transgender angle, he only used what he had to to win against his opponents. The Ultra-Humanite was one of the main returning villains in the 1992-92 Justice Society comic, looking a lot on the un-dainty side...
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 19, 2019 15:19:31 GMT -5
Avengers: Falcon (tpb, 2014) collecting: Falcon 1-4 (1983), Captain America 117-119 (1969), Marvel Premiere 49 (1979) and the Falcon back-up stories from Captain America 276-278 (1982) Published to coincide with the Falcon's motion picture debut in the MCU, this collects a bunch of stories featuring a character that bears only the vaguest resemblance to his cinematic counterpart. Not that that bothered me, as I just wanted these, mainly Bronze Age, stories. I read them in chronological order, so I read the 1983 mini last. And speaking of that mini, this is the first time I'd ever read it; I recall when it came out back in the day, but for some reason I never picked it up, even though I was really into the other minis Marvel was putting out back then (e.g. Hercules, Hawkeye, etc.). Didn't enjoy as much as I thought it would: there's some good ideas in there and a few nice and a few humorous scenes, but at that early point in his career, it's apparent that James Owsley (now better known as Christopher Priest) was still learning his craft. The art was also uneven. The first issue, which was apparently originally supposed to appear in Marvel Fanfare, was drawn by Paul Smith. The remaining three were drawn by Mark D. Bright who, again, looks like he was still sharpening his skills at this point (I've seen his later work, which is uniformly quite nice). Otherwise, the book gets high marks for me for including Falc's original appearances in Capt. America (by Lee and Colan), as well as the story in Marvel Premiere (by Evanier and Sal Buscema) and the back-ups from Capt. America in 1982 (by DeMatteis and Zeck) that was a laudable attempt to clear up that whole wish-it-never-happened 'Snap Wilson' retcon from Englehart's run. Much as I loved Englehart, I HATED that Snap Wilson thing, and I had wondered if anybody ever tried to retcon it. I will have to check out those DeMatteis/Zeck issues.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 19, 2019 15:51:03 GMT -5
Much as I loved Englehart, I HATED that Snap Wilson thing, and I had wondered if anybody ever tried to retcon it. I will have to check out those DeMatteis/Zeck issues. DeMatteis didn't retcon Englehart's retcon, he just fixed it, sort of, by asserting that Sam's whole 'Snap' phase or episode or whatever was rooted in a psychotic break caused by Sam's mental distress over the tragic loss of his father and then his mother a few years later.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 19, 2019 16:48:20 GMT -5
Much as I loved Englehart, I HATED that Snap Wilson thing, and I had wondered if anybody ever tried to retcon it. I will have to check out those DeMatteis/Zeck issues. DeMatteis didn't retcon Englehart's retcon, he just fixed it, sort of, by asserting that Sam's whole 'Snap' phase or episode or whatever was rooted in a psychotic break caused by Sam's mental distress over the tragic loss of his father and then his mother a few years later. Well, that's definitely an improvement. I'll have to check it out.
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Post by profholt82 on Aug 19, 2019 20:36:33 GMT -5
I came across The Nam and Vietnam Journal in local shops and they sparked my interest, so I figured I'd read the first issues to see if I'd be interested in the series. I'm an admitted history buff (it was my second major back in college), but was a bit apprehensive about comics based on the war. However, I found these books tasteful and well written. The Journal book definitely has a grittier feel than The Nam, but I liked them both and plan on seeking out more. After reading those two, I started thinking about my GI Joe books in my collection from when I was a kid, and remembered the Snake Eyes origin story. It actually spans 2 issues, 26 and 27, and touches heavily on his tour in Vietnam where he was wounded. So, I ended up reading that as well. I understand that writer Larry Hama actually based a lot of the GI Joe character back stories on guys that he served with in Vietnam. Not sure about Snake Eyes though.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Aug 20, 2019 5:42:47 GMT -5
I came across The Nam and Vietnam Journal in local shops and they sparked my interest, so I figured I'd read the first issues to see if I'd be interested in the series. I'm an admitted history buff (it was my second major back in college), but was a bit apprehensive about comics based on the war. However, I found these books tasteful and well written. The Journal book definitely has a grittier feel than The Nam, but I liked them both and plan on seeking out more. After reading those two, I started thinking about my GI Joe books in my collection from when I was a kid, and remembered the Snake Eyes origin story. It actually spans 2 issues, 26 and 27, and touches heavily on his tour in Vietnam where he was wounded. So, I ended up reading that as well. I understand that writer Larry Hama actually based a lot of the GI Joe character back stories on guys that he served with in Vietnam. Not sure about Snake Eyes though. I love The Nam. The first 40 or so issues were great, but it tailed off a bit after that, finally reaching its nadir when they brought Frank Castle (The Punisher) into the book. I've never read Vietnam Journal, but I've wanted to for quite a while.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 20, 2019 10:21:10 GMT -5
I just read, for only the 2nd time in 45 years, a huge chunk of the Nostalgia Press " FLASH GORDON" reprint-- particularly, the long, INSANELY-violent stretch from the City of the Hawkmen, through the Tournament Of Death, to the Kingdom Of Caves. The latter is essentially the 2nd major storyline in the strip's history. Whatr surprised me were the number of things from that, that turned up in the Universal serials. This includes Azura, Queen of Magic (who, in the comic, had her castle in an UNDERGROUND cavern), Flash getting drugged into forgetting who he was and that he loved Dale (in the comic, it was Azura who did this, NOT Aura as in the 1936 serial), and, Zarkov inventing a machine that makes Flash INVISIBLE. One thing I've become convinced, on re-reading this first (of 5) volumes from the 70s, is that-- incredibly-- Universal IMPROVED on the writing of most of the main characters! I mean, in this comic-strip, almost NOBODY comes across well, except for Flash and Zarkov. It hasn't really gotten bad-- YET-- but I strongly remember that over the course of the 9 straight YEARS that they were on Mongo, more and more, Dale Arden came to really infuriate me, for her thick-headedness when it came to INCESSANT jealousy.
The only time you ever really saw this in the Universal serials, was in the 3rd one, "CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE", where Carol Hughes' Dale on 2 occasions was seen getting really pissed-- but in there, she had good reason! First, Queen Fria of Frigia was getting a little too gushy in her admiration for Flash, and then later, Ming's spy Sonya tried to make a deal with Flash to put HIM on the throne of Arboria instead of Barin. In both cases, Buster Crabbe's Flash was smart enough to just ignore Dale's B.S. and laugh it off. On her side, Dale eventually got into a genuine cat-fight with Sonya, just at the point where Ming's ships were gas-bombing Barin's castle.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 20, 2019 14:48:16 GMT -5
The first 'Nam story was in a b&w Marvel magazine... Savage Tales v.2 #1, just before the series started. Read Amazing Adventures #35-37 (War Of The Worlds) with just #39 to go, the last one (I read the fill-in #38 out of order earlier). Really enjoy seeing the octopus-like Martians drawn by Russell, especially daft looking on top of a giant tortoise!
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 20, 2019 15:15:14 GMT -5
The Ultra -Humanite made appearances in the Roy Thomas books in the 80's and also in a crossover between the JLA/JSA. I didn't seem like he cared about the transgender angle, he only used what he had to to win against his opponents. The Ultra-Humanite was one of the main returning villains in the 1992-92 Justice Society comic, looking a lot on the un-dainty side... The Ultra-Humanite was also the villain in some of the earlier issues of a Power Girl series, I'm thinking the 2009 series?
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Post by Duragizer on Aug 20, 2019 19:06:24 GMT -5
Can't say I'm a fan of the white gorilla Ultra-Humanite. Something about that version just doesn't appeal to me.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 20, 2019 20:14:01 GMT -5
I only ever saw him as the white Gorilla starting with this issue.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 20, 2019 21:53:01 GMT -5
I only ever saw him as the white Gorilla starting with this issue. One of my favorite JSA/JLA crossovers.
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Post by MDG on Aug 21, 2019 8:43:17 GMT -5
The Ultra-Humanite was one of the main returning villains in the 1992-92 Justice Society comic, looking a lot on the un-dainty side... I knew it reminded me of something....
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 21, 2019 9:58:25 GMT -5
I only ever saw him as the white Gorilla starting with this issue. One of my favorite JSA/JLA crossovers. Me too!
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