Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,946
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Post by Crimebuster on Nov 4, 2019 16:22:33 GMT -5
Darwyn Cooke's Wonder Woman is the best Wonder Woman ever.
My two cents.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 4, 2019 18:00:53 GMT -5
I said it at the time and I'll say it again...They could have handed the DCU over to Darwyn Cooke as his playground and I'd have been happy.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 4, 2019 19:29:44 GMT -5
I’m binge-reading a big pile of Legionnaires and Legion of super-heroes from the “Archie legion” days, and enjoying it a lot.
The problem with rebooted series is that there is always a strong temptation to re-tell old stories in a slightly different way. Here it means new (but very familiar) incarnations of the Fatal Five, the Emerald Eye, Computo, and Mordru... who manages to have a showdown with the Legion in Legionnaires #50, just as he had in LoSH #50 a few years prior (during the 5YL era).
I’m a big fan of the early days of the Bierbaums-Giffen Legion, but that run was hampered by an overabundance of doom, gloom and despair. Here the heroes are kids again, shining with optimism and enthusiasm. This rebooted series was lighter in tone, perhaps not as challenging as far as storytelling goes, but less likely to depress the reader!
And it struck me, reading those books: while the actor who plays Brainiac 5 on TV doesn’t look like the way Brainy is usually depicted in comics, he does look a lot like the character as drawn by Lee Moder! Probably just a coincidence, but an amusing one.
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Post by brianf on Nov 4, 2019 21:28:22 GMT -5
I recently bought and read the Man-Wolf The Complete Collection TPB I still enjoyed the first 3 MW stories by Conway / Kane / Andru, but I still don't really understand why Man-Wolf was given his own series in Creatures On The Loose. His 1st 3 appearances in COTL by creators like Moench, Isabella & Tuska was a bit aimless and made me wonder if the Marvel Monster books of the early 70's just sold so well that any werewolf would sell. But when the creative team of David Kraft & George Perez arrived in Creatures on the Loose #33 things improved. Their run ( COTL #33-37 & a 2 part finale in Marvel Premiere #45-46) is a lot of fun. The end of the book kinda peters out in various guest appearances whose continuity errors kinda poke you in the eye, but ya know - I'm still glad they put this out. issues in the collection - Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998 1st Series) #124-125 and 189-190; Giant Size Super Heroes: Featuring Spider-Man (1974) #1; Creatures on the Loose (1971-1975) #30-37; Marvel Premiere (1972-1981) #45-46; Marvel Team-Up (1972-1985 1st Series) #36-37; Savage She-Hulk (1980-1982) #13-14 and material from Spectacular Spider-Man (1976-1998 1st Series) Annual #3.
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Post by Duragizer on Nov 4, 2019 22:16:50 GMT -5
Darwyn Cooke's Wonder Woman is the best Wonder Woman ever. My two cents. Alex Ross' is my #1, but Cooke's my #2.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 4, 2019 22:35:00 GMT -5
So, I recently read volumes 1 and 2 of Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier for the first time... I've been wanting to read this mini-series for a long time, based entirely on the good things I've read folks here say about it. I'm very much a "Marvel guy" and, as a result, I'm really not particularly au fait with DC character history – especially any characters outside of Batman and Superman. In fact, I had little or no idea, until I had finished it and looked it up on Wikipedia, that this mini-series was set in an alternate version of the Silver Age DCU...kinda like an Elseworlds book or one of those old "imaginary stories". On the surface of things, this is a story about the formation of the Justice League of America in the early 1960s. However, The New Frontier's masterstroke is that, beneath this deceptively straightforward set up, there lies an examination of the real world social ills and Cold War politics of the era, which nevertheless manages to preserve the upbeat optimism of DC's late '50s and early '60s comics. By placing the superheroes within the cultural context of this era, in a way that DC's actual Silver Age comics never did, Darwyn Cooke serves up a fascinating blend of race politics, McCarthey-era paranoia, fantastical superhero elements, and a dinosaur-populated island, which manages to conjure the zeitgiest of John F. Kennedy's "Camelot" era unflinchingly, without ever sinking into Baby Boomer nostalgia -- and it all still works as a rip-snorting, fun adventure too! Cooke's artwork is excellent from a story-telling and "panel-to-panel flow" point of view, while its gloriously retro style fits the setting perfectly and is very satisfying in the action sequences and more character-driven moments. However, I'm not sure it really carries the story's weightier psychological concepts and darker moments all that well. I also question how much I'd enjoy his artwork outside of this '60s setting. I found Cooke's writing to be engaging and well paced, although I also felt that the first volume was rather disjointed and episodic. It held my interest, sure, but it took its damn sweet time setting things up before the story coalesced into a compelling narrative in the second volume. I also got the impression that there were plenty of "fan service-y" details and Easter Eggs that were soaring clean over my head as I read, but that's OK, since it didn't detract from my enjoyment at all. Even as a die-hard Marvel fan, Cooke made me care about DC's heroes in a way that I've seldom done in the past. In particular, The New Frontier represents the only time I think I've ever cared for J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Likewise, I don't think I've ever enjoyed reading about The Flash or Green Lantern as much as I did here. And Cooke's rationalisation for Batman's early '60s "new look" is an especially nifty and thought-provoking retcon. Overall, I enjoyed The New Frontier a lot. I'm guessing that, when this came out in the early 21st Century, it must've felt like a refreshing antidote to the grim & gritty trend in superhero comics, which had dominated in the late '80s and 1990s. Though I'm not a comics fan who particulary pines for the more innocent comics of the '60s and '70s -- I love darker superhero comics, as much as I enjoy the lighter tales -- The New Frontier certainly casts a powerfully upbeat spell. And while it's not a patch on Kurt Busiek's Marvels (a mini-series that, being set in the same era, is hard not to compare The New Frontier to), it is a DC mini-series that this die-hard Marvel fan really liked. I've been wanting to read The New Frontier for a while but I never got around to it. I'll have to see if the Los Angeles County Library has it.
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Post by dbutler69 on Nov 5, 2019 7:19:41 GMT -5
I have been re-reading the old annual JLA/JSA crossovers. My favorites involve a third team like the Freedom Fighters. Earth S heroes. The Legion. The JLA/JSA crossovers are my favorite JLA issues. I agree with you about the third team. The more heroes the better! I'm a big Legion fan, but those other crossovers got me interested in characters I'd never heard of before.
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Post by dbutler69 on Nov 5, 2019 7:22:52 GMT -5
I’m binge-reading a big pile of Legionnaires and Legion of super-heroes from the “Archie legion” days, and enjoying it a lot. The problem with rebooted series is that there is always a strong temptation to re-tell old stories in a slightly different way. Here it means new (but very familiar) incarnations of the Fatal Five, the Emerald Eye, Computo, and Mordru... who manages to have a showdown with the Legion in Legionnaires #50, just as he had in LoSH #50 a few years prior (during the 5YL era). I’m a big fan of the early days of the Bierbaums-Giffen Legion, but that run was hampered by an overabundance of doom, gloom and despair. Here the heroes are kids again, shining with optimism and enthusiasm. This rebooted series was lighter in tone, perhaps not as challenging as far as storytelling goes, but less likely to depress the reader! And it struck me, reading those books: while the actor who plays Brainiac 5 on TV doesn’t look like the way Brainy is usually depicted in comics, he does look a lot like the character as drawn by Lee Moder! Probably just a coincidence, but an amusing one. I read the first TPB of the "Archie Legion" a few years ago and really enjoyed it. As I make my way through all of the Legion comics, I plan to eventually make it back to this, then on to the other "Archie Legion" comics. I'm looking forward to that. The Bierbaums-Giffen Legion was OK, but not really my cup of tea. Too much doom and gloom, plus I disliked the art quite a bit.
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Post by badwolf on Nov 5, 2019 10:16:44 GMT -5
"Wow, I thought I knew you, Jameson!"
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2019 18:41:50 GMT -5
I read over 400 DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks in two years starting in May 2017 and finishing up my last two ... Ka-Zar Volumes 1 and 2 today.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 6, 2019 7:57:36 GMT -5
Do you actually own them all Mecha? (that would be a cool bookshelf pic!)
Read some Tarzan last night... I picked up the Dark Horse Omni a while back (Apparently there's quite a few volumes of them). Alot of it tends to seem the same, but when they branch out on the plot, it's really fun. Like one where super intelligent gorillas build a city and start taking prisoners... then use some sort of Tesla-y machine to shrink them to half size so they can work but not rebel. Of course it doesn't work right on Tarzan, so he becomes super dense at 1/2 size and saves the day.
I really hate that Tarzan and Jane's son is just called 'Boy' though.. it grates on me every time. I get they didn't like 'Korak the Killer' since it's meant to be all ages, but couldn't you have come up with something? The make up a whole Ape language, one decent name shouldn't have been hard.
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Post by dbutler69 on Nov 6, 2019 8:06:30 GMT -5
Do you actually own them all Mecha? (that would be a cool bookshelf pic!) Read some Tarzan last night... I picked up the Dark Horse Omni a while back (Apparently there's quite a few volumes of them). Alot of it tends to seem the same, but when they branch out on the plot, it's really fun. Like one where super intelligent gorillas build a city and start taking prisoners... then use some sort of Tesla-y machine to shrink them to half size so they can work but not rebel. Of course it doesn't work right on Tarzan, so he becomes super dense at 1/2 size and saves the day. I really hate that Tarzan and Jane's son is just called 'Boy' though.. it grates on me every time. I get they didn't like 'Korak the Killer' since it's meant to be all ages, but couldn't you have come up with something? The make up a whole Ape language, one decent name shouldn't have been hard. Really, couldn't they have just called him Korak without revealing that it means "killer"? Boy does sound pretty lame.
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 6, 2019 8:11:36 GMT -5
Do you actually own them all Mecha? (that would be a cool bookshelf pic!) Read some Tarzan last night... I picked up the Dark Horse Omni a while back (Apparently there's quite a few volumes of them). Alot of it tends to seem the same, but when they branch out on the plot, it's really fun. Like one where super intelligent gorillas build a city and start taking prisoners... then use some sort of Tesla-y machine to shrink them to half size so they can work but not rebel. Of course it doesn't work right on Tarzan, so he becomes super dense at 1/2 size and saves the day. I really hate that Tarzan and Jane's son is just called 'Boy' though.. it grates on me every time. I get they didn't like 'Korak the Killer' since it's meant to be all ages, but couldn't you have come up with something? The make up a whole Ape language, one decent name shouldn't have been hard. I don't know which Tarzans DH is reprinting, but if it's the Dells I believe the publisher was contractually restricted by ERB, Inc., to using characters from the first two novels only. That's why they featured the movie version's Boy instead of Korak. It was only after Gold Key renegotitated with the licensor in the mid-'60s that the true sSon of Tarzan could appear in comic books. I could be wrong about that, though. I'll know more once I get to the 1948 chapter of my next book (that's the year Dell first acquired the rights).
Me Cei-U! You wildfire!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 7, 2019 7:40:49 GMT -5
Yeah, those are them... The first couple are from Four Color Comics, then the rest of the Omni is Tarzan #1 -... 16 I think? The last couple have photo covers of the guy before Johnny Weismuller.
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 7, 2019 8:09:22 GMT -5
Yeah, those are them... The first couple are from Four Color Comics, then the rest of the Omni is Tarzan #1 -... 16 I think? The last couple have photo covers of the guy before Johnny Weismuller. I think you mean "the guy after Johnny Weissmuller." Weismuller played Tarzan from 1932 to 1948, after which the aging actor switched to playing the fully clothed Jungle Jim. Les Barker replaced him in the loincloth, and that's him on the covers of Tarzan #13-16.
Cei-U! I summon the order of succession!
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