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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 13, 2019 13:03:55 GMT -5
Marvel Heroes and Legends (1996 and 1997) My thoughts on the 1996 edition haven't changed since I first read it: it's fine for what it is, a bit of a throwaway story scripted by Stan Lee based on a plot by Fabian Nicieza set in the early days of the Marvel U (on Sue and Reed's wedding day from the Fantastic Four Annual). It's entertaining enough, and the art, by the Buscema brothers, Romita Sr., Ditko, Colan, Marie Severin and Ron Frenz (inked by Palmer, Sinnott, Austin, Bill Reinhold and Milgrom) is mostly quite good. The 1997 book is ... just not that good, unless you ignore the dialog and just look at the pictures. Most of the art, by Sal Buscema, Dick Ayers, Ditko and Kane is good enough (except for the section by Ayers). The story, though, written by a writer with whom I'm entirely unfamiliar, John Felder, is - again - not good (I'm trying to avoid being overly negative, so that's the best I can do). Again, it's set in the early days of the Marvel U, as a sort of behind-the-scenes story to accompany Avengers #16, when the team became Cap's Kooky Quartet. Felder's attempts to mimic Lee's writing style of the time just come across as forced, and he most of the heroes' voices, especially Cap, are really off. I think I spent the equivalent of about $2/3 for this one, which was honestly too much. Interesting to know of these two books all the same. I'd be pretty tempted but sounds like they are not much worth the bother of finding. If I ever run across them cheapish though... I would love something else like the Roger Stern & Bruce Timm Avengers #1 1/2 circa 1999 I have.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 13, 2019 13:57:47 GMT -5
Interesting to know of these two books all the same. I'd be pretty tempted but sounds like they are not much worth the bother of finding. If I ever run across them cheapish though... I would love something else like the Roger Stern & Bruce Timm Avengers #1 1/2 circa 1999 I have. Yeah, I have Avengers 1.5, too, and I love it. It's orders of magnitude better than either of those two Heroes & Legends books. If you are interested in buying them, I would not recommend paying over a buck for them.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2019 15:11:04 GMT -5
Marvel Masterworks
The Defenders: Vol. 1-3
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 13, 2019 17:09:11 GMT -5
I just got this from the library! I have this one. It was a gift from Roy Thomas to thank me for my work on one of the All-Star Companion books. And, yes, it is the cream of the Golden Age JSA crop.
Cei-U! I summon the treasured memento!
I read All-Star Comics #33 and #34 over the last couple of days and they are both so much fun! I especially love the Johnny Thunder chapter in #33. It cracks me up! So much Johnny Thunder material from the Golden Age (even in All-Star) is just terrible! But his chapter in the Solomon Grundy story reminds me why I like the character so much! With a good writer who gets the concept, Johnny is HILARIOUS! I've been wondering how many CCF members have read all 55 Golden Age JSA adventures. I'm pretty sure you have, Cei-U! Anybody else? I've probably read about half over the years.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 13, 2019 17:18:25 GMT -5
I love Assassination Classroom! I've never read the manga, but a co-worker of mine was watching the anime when it was slow at work and I was intrigued! Since it was available at home (on HULU, I think), I got in the habit of watching one to three episodes at a time several days a week. It's pretty wild! I don't really watch that much anime, but when I find a show I like, I watch it to the end. So I've only seen four anime series from start to finish - Best Student Council, Kill La Kill, Ouran High School Host Club and Assassination Classroom. And I like One-Punch Man a lot! I saw the first season on Netflix Streaming and I hope to catch up with the second season eventually.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,758
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Post by shaxper on Oct 13, 2019 19:47:34 GMT -5
I love Assassination Classroom! I've never read the manga, but a co-worker of mine was watching the anime when it was slow at work and I was intrigued! Since it was available at home (on HULU, I think), I got in the habit of watching one to three episodes at a time several days a week. It's pretty wild! I don't really watch that much anime, but when I find a show I like, I watch it to the end. So I've only seen four anime series from start to finish - Best Student Council, Kill La Kill, Ouran High School Host Club and Assassination Classroom. And I like One-Punch Man a lot! I saw the first season on Netflix Streaming and I hope to catch up with the second season eventually. I think I've only ever gotten into two anime series to date: Serial Experiments Lain (wow!) And Robotech, which is actually an American bastardization of three different Japanese animes, but I love the Robotech version best. My favorite soap opera of all time...with transforming mechanics jets in space!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 14, 2019 0:06:15 GMT -5
Ok guys, while I agree Assassination Classroom is really cool and unique, y'all MUST go watch Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood... best show ever (not just the best anime ever)... conviently available on Netflix atm!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 14, 2019 0:10:35 GMT -5
Just had a most unusual reading experience. A student of mine recommended I read Assassination Classroom the other day. I'm no different than most older comic fans who don't really know what to make of manga and treat it like the elephant in the medium that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. I've tried a few mangas my students have recommended before without feeling particularly wowed, but I really respect this student's tastes, so I gave it a whirl. Wow. I just binge-read eight issues in one sitting (which is as far as the volume I purchased goes), and while there are many trappings of the genre that still aren't working for me, the essence of this thing is pure magic -- a seemingly all-powerful, creepy looking monster with an expressionless cartoon smile and giant tentacles has annihilated the moon and threatened to do the same to the Earth in one year's time. In the meantime, he has demanded that he be allowed to teach the most hopeless kids in one school in America, promising not to harm them and allowing them to attempt to kill him. The thing is, he's the teacher we all wish we had (and that I strive to be), truly and honestly caring for the kids, using his threat to blow up the world as motivation for them to find the hero within themselves. He actually teaches all the subjects (and does them justice!), all while kids repeatedly assault him, and he offers feedback on their attempts. It's actually a brilliant metaphor for public education, and anyone who has ever been a teacher or a student would really get a kick out of it. Prince Hal , you may want to check this out. I'm not sure I'll keep reading beyond volume one. I adore the premise, but the genre may be too impenetrable for me to want to continue beyond this first cursory outing. I'm not invested in the other characters in this series who all feel like the uni-dimensional types I've seen in manga before. It's the teacher-monster that draws me in, and I'm not sure he alone can carry me through the twenty remaining volumes. While many of the student all get their turn in the spotlight, I can see how someone that's not used to manga would have difficulty with things.. the characters are hard to tell apart at first. To be honest, though, Koro-Sensei is really the only character that matters I can tell you, Shax, that as a teacher, you will really get alot of the stuff in the story (probably more so than most).. if the 21 volumes is too much to read, you could always watch the anime (though the parts left out of the anime I felt were important, so I never got through the whole thing), but it's worth the effort. Be warned, though, as you go, there is a bit of fan service here and there.. it's not nearly as bad as some, but it can be a bit jarring if one is not expecting it.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 14, 2019 4:18:25 GMT -5
Solo #10 (featuring Damion Scott; 2006) Yet another denizen of my short box which, like the second Heroes & Legends book I mentioned above, I bought some time ago, put away and then almost forgot about it until a few days ago. I think I bought this one to pad out an order from mycomicshop.com many years ago, when their shipping rates were more reasonable. Whatever the matter, I really liked this. I'd never read any of the comics Scott had drawn, so I had no idea what to expect. It's like very elaborate graffiti transposed onto a comics page. Very stylized and often quite gorgeous. The middle of the book has a set of Superman pin-ups that are particularly well done - like this one, in which the buildings below Superman spell the word Metropolis:
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Post by brutalis on Oct 14, 2019 7:46:49 GMT -5
Begun digging into the Classic Evanier/Spiegle Blackhawk run. Read the 1st 4 issues: 150, 151, 152, 153 and forcing myself to slow down because once started I want to keep reading! They are just that damn good and a pure delight!
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 14, 2019 8:34:50 GMT -5
Begun digging into the Classic Evanier/Spiegle Blackhawk run. Read the 1st 4 issues: 150, 151, 152, 153 and forcing myself to slow down because once started I want to keep reading! They are just that damn good and a pure delight! Glad you like them. Many of the covers were stunningly good. Spiegle is a great storytelling artist, and Evanier did a fine job bringing a more modern approach to the strip without destroying it in the name of deconstructing. Shameless plug: Crimebuster's podcasts on that (with some old b*st*rd) run begin with this conversation: classiccomics.org/thread/4733/blackhawk-mark-evanier-prince-hal
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2019 9:21:12 GMT -5
Not read, but I'll post here how I am really enjoying the Justice League cartoon series circa 2003-04-05... none of which I saw at the time. After enjoying the three Legion Of Super-Heroes animated DVDs so much I looked into this. Hawkgirl is my favorite! So far I've watched the debut three part Secret Orgins, two part War World, and three part Starcrossed (also available as a 'movie' on DVD). I have three other two part stories lined up to watch next. The cartoon style is slightly overdone on some of the guys' upper bodies, and those chins... but otherwise perfection! I noticed Paul Rivoche's name in the credits, he did all those cool Mr. X covers at Vortex! Batman TAS is my favorite, but Justice League is my 2nd favorite DC animated series. I grew up watching Super friends in the 70's and today I find it virtually unwatchable...30 years later I finally got the version of Super Friends I always wanted. So many great episodes with JL and I have re-watched this series many times. I agree with you on the guys chins, they are too square.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 15, 2019 21:01:38 GMT -5
I'm still reading All-Star Archives #8 and I've been thinking about the JSA members in my idle moments. And one guy that's been in my head a lot is the Atom. He seems kind of generic, but the more I think about it, I realize that he's actually kid of unusual for a costumes hero of the period. Most non-powered heroes were wealthy playboys (or newspaper publishers or whatever) or they had a gimmick of some kind. But Al Pratt was just a college student who decided to fight crime!
He's never been one of my favorites but he was in too many JSA adventures to be ignored, so he's grown on me a bit. I cant think of ever seeing a reprinted Golden Age Atom story that wasn't from a JSA adventure.
So maybe that's why I don't think about him much. I never saw his solo strip.
I have a question. What was his major in college? I could look it up online and I probably will later tonight or tomorrow. But I was curious to see if anybody at CCF knows without looking it up.
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Post by urrutiap on Oct 15, 2019 23:03:37 GMT -5
Not reading, but just flipping through the pages of the True Believers reprints of Incredible Hulk stuff I bought earlier this month from the comic book shop.
art work of Bruce Banner and both green hulk and grey hulk im impressed with.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 16, 2019 11:31:17 GMT -5
I'm still reading All-Star Archives #8 and I've been thinking about the JSA members in my idle moments. And one guy that's been in my head a lot is the Atom. He seems kind of generic, but the more I think about it, I realize that he's actually kid of unusual for a costumes hero of the period. Most non-powered heroes were wealthy playboys (or newspaper publishers or whatever) or they had a gimmick of some kind. But Al Pratt was just a college student who decided to fight crime! He's never been one of my favorites but he was in too many JSA adventures to be ignored, so he's grown on me a bit. I cant think of ever seeing a reprinted Golden Age Atom story that wasn't from a JSA adventure. So maybe that's why I don't think about him much. I never saw his solo strip. I have a question. What was his major in college? I could look it up online and I probably will later tonight or tomorrow. But I was curious to see if anybody at CCF knows without looking it up. I've read pretty much all of the solo Atom stories from the Golden Age and I don't recall him ever declaring a major in the nine years he spent at Calvin College. However, since Al Pratt was a physics professor at his alma mater in his team-ups with the Silver Age Atom, I think it's safe to assume that had been his major.
Cei-U I summon the perpetual student!
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