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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 20, 2019 22:09:44 GMT -5
I read The Brave and the Bold #100. I like the idea behind this story - Batman is incapacitated and gets some of his superhero buddies to do his legwork for him to stop a big drug shipment - but as with many Haney stories, there's some weirdness and "off" dialogue that detracts from an interesting idea. Still, it's an enjoyable tale and the Jim Aparo art didn't hurt. I used to have this and some others with Jim Aparo art, he was also brilliant on Aquaman around then as well. I think he became an artist people took for granted but was definitely a notch or two above average.
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Post by Batflunkie on Dec 20, 2019 22:58:16 GMT -5
I picked up this Archie 'cause the cover intrigued me. But instead of somewhat serious take (which might've been the case had this cover been on "Life with..."), the story's more typical.
Archie and Reggie deck themselves out in leather jackets and are ready to rumble with "The Dragons" if they try anything. Betty panics that they're going to get hurt, so starts a gang among the Riverdale High girls: no more "dates" for the boys until they give up their gang (and jackets). Which, of course, they do. So, basically a mashup of West Side Story and Lysistrata in 5 pages. (Also want to note that Lucey does a great job using positions and postures to emphasize character interactions.)
Such a typical plot device for the time (women control everything, so it's best not to press your luck), so much so that it's almost laughable
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 23, 2019 5:56:58 GMT -5
Arrowsmith (2003, tpb, So Smart in Their Fine Uniforms, 2004) by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco and Jesús Meriño After hearing about this for years, and finding a pretty inexpensive copy of the tpb last spring, I finally got around to reading this. Oh, man. It's pretty much as good as everyone says it is. A brief summary for those who may not have read it: the setting is World War I in an alternate history past, in which magic is real, and various mythical creatures like fairies, dragons, trolls, elves, etc. exist. The war the war is fought with magic, and each side (the main combatant nations are Prussia on one side, and Gallia and Albion on the other) has their own wizards and mages developing new and ever more deadly supernatural ways to slaughter each other. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, in the still uninvolved United States of Columbia, a teenage boy named Fletcher Arrowsmith decides to run away from home to join a volunteer air corps - they fly on their own with little dragons on their shoulders (whose power of flight they magically channel). He eventually gets deployed to the theater of war, and what he sees and does there shakes him to his core. Ultimately, despite the fairy-tale setting, this is a very brutal commentary on real-world war. In fact, it's the almost whimsical trappings and the absolutely gorgeous art by Pacheco and Meriño juxtaposed against some of the horrific aspects that makes the story so effective. Otherwise, it seems like Busiek may have intended to revisit and continue the story, but never did. Despite that, this one is well worth reading if you haven't already.
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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 23, 2019 23:39:23 GMT -5
I've read Generation X from #43 through to #62 including a crossover X-Man #50. Also X Force #93-96. I really like a lot of the teen mutant characters, many are totally new to me (barely saw Jubilee in one X-Men story before this), though I do recognize some of the erstwhile New Mutants in X Force. Of course I know Banshee who is one of the instructors in gen X. These two titles are sort of like Marvel's version of Legion Of Super-Heroes! I found the Generation X two-parter where they find themselves in the places of the White Queen's Hellions on the day the Hellions were all killed quite a bit like the old Ghost Of Ferro-Lad in Adventure Comics... a dimension of tragedy can work (though often enough it's just waste). Strangely compelling. I do remember the Hellions from New Mutants just before Sienkiwicz started on the art. We're meant to see that their deaths led Emma Frost (the White Queen) to attempt to go legit and see a different outcome with Generation X. Another issue mentions Firestar from The Avengers having been a Hellion which I didn't know. I remember Artie (barely) from early X Factor but no idea why or how he has ended up with a green kid named Leech at this Massachusetts academy, but they are a lot of fun in an issue where they decide to have fun in NYC! X Force at this stage seems led by Sam Guthrie and Daniel Moonstar with Banshee's daughter Siryn experiencing technical difficulties, Rahn Sinclair mostly off on Muir island I think, and Roberto DaCosta deported! It looks like both titles go darker and maybe steroidal (groan) under some return of Claremont 'Revolution' agenda right after these issues, so that's going to be it for me, but they were fun while they lasted. I think I could get X Force #97-100 still.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 26, 2019 15:38:04 GMT -5
I read Batman #308, with Mr. Freeze is back! It's a pretty good story by Len Wein, and pencild by John Calnan, whom I don't know much about, but the art is decent. No doubt the Dick Giordano inks help out. I also read the Legion of Super-Heroes #45. It's a double sized issue for the 30th anniversary, and as huge of a Legion fan (and Levitz fan) as I am, I thought this issue was disappointined. It's rather "meh", especially for a big anniversary issue. Oh well. This Baxter is still pretty spectacular, IHMO.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 27, 2019 7:22:34 GMT -5
Moebius Exotics(Dark Horse, 1997) Wasn't sure if I should have posted this in the European comics thread, but went for this one, since it's a translation published in the US. This is a collection of eight stories by the great Moebius (Jean Giraud), four of which I already have in another book, The Long Tomorrow, published by Marvel/Epic in the 1980s: "Black Beard and the Pirate Brain," "There is a Prince Charming on Phenixon," "The Artifact" and "Split, the Little Space Pioneer." The other four are "Shore Leave on Pharagonesia," "You're the Object of This and That," "Invaders" and "The Horny Goof." Pretty much all of these stories have a humorous bent (some rather darkly so), but the art varies in them. In some, Giraud used a very comical style typical of humor or satire comics, in others he employed his gorgeous, more 'realistic' style. The two stories that bookend the collection, Pharagonesia and Horny Goof, are the longest, and also the best in my opinion. The first is about a space-farer going on shore leave and having it go horribly wrong, while the second is about a guy who's, well, having a bit of a problem with an unwanted erection - which leads to quite an unexpected adventure, as these things apparently do.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 27, 2019 9:59:11 GMT -5
I read DC Comics Presents #38. The lead story was OK, but the backup story, "Whatever Happened to...the Crimson Avenger?" was quite good, as a ying Crimson Avengers gives his life to save the city, or at least part of it.
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Post by berkley on Dec 27, 2019 16:26:49 GMT -5
That's one seriously striking cover!!! It is! However, Diana doesn't wear anything like that in this comic, and though she's chained, it's with both hands together, above her head. So there's not anything quite like this in the book. This is a nice cover, though it looks more like the cover to a horror comic than a Wonder Woman (even an "Emma Peel" Wonder Woman) comic. More specifically, a gothic romance: so much so that I'm sure that Jones was going for that look deliberately - and succeeded brilliantly. On the down side, I doubt the interior artwork lives up to those covers. I know I've said this before in another context (in rdgard to Steranko), but as much as I love these great covers, I think I'd rather Jones had drawn one complete comic with cover than 10 covers to relatively disappointing interior stories drawn by others.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 27, 2019 16:48:37 GMT -5
It is! However, Diana doesn't wear anything like that in this comic, and though she's chained, it's with both hands together, above her head. So there's not anything quite like this in the book. This is a nice cover, though it looks more like the cover to a horror comic than a Wonder Woman (even an "Emma Peel" Wonder Woman) comic. More specifically, a gothic romance: so much so that I'm sure that Jones was going for that look deliberately - and succeeded brilliantly. On the down side, I doubt the interior artwork lives up to those covers. I know I've said this before in another context (in rdgard to Steranko), but as much as I love these great covers, I think I'd rather Jones had drawn one complete comic with cover than 10 covers to relatively disappointing interior stories drawn by others. You're probably right about the gothic romance influence, and you're also right that the interior art doesn't live up to it. The interior art is decent, though I'm not a huge Don Heck fan, but yeah, tht cover is something special.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 27, 2019 16:50:14 GMT -5
I read Tales of the Teen Titans #42, part 1 of the Judas Contract. Obviously, a great story, and I also have to say, for whatever reason, the art here is even better than what I've been seeing on this title. I don't know if it's because of the Giordano inks (and I think Romeo Tanghal is great!) or if Perez is just developing even further, or what it was.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 30, 2019 10:19:11 GMT -5
I've been reading through the entire run of Defenders (technically not the "entire" run, as I started doing it a couple of years ago and got side-tracked around issue #30, so I picked it back up this time around at issue #18 or so to ensure I had any plotlines started before I quit previously fresh in my mind). I reached issue #126 this morning, which is the official first issue of "The New Defenders", and it also marked me getting over the 1,000 comics read threshold for the year. I really feel like this series is a mixed bag, much like the team itself. There are storylines that are really good and some that are real stinkers, and sometimes they overlap each other, so part of an issue can be interesting and gripping while the other half can be a slog to get through. One interesting thing I found in the past week was in issue #115. This is a whimsical tale in honor of Dr. Seuss, and while the story is fun enough, the letters page is where the real magic happens. There is a great letter there that opens by indicating that the lettersmith is not a big fan of series writer J.M. DeMatteis, but that the work done in issue #111 was changing that opinion. The letter writer goes on to dissect some of the previous stories dealing with the nature of demons and "Satan" in the Marvel Universe and how DeMatteis had handled the subject with care, or to quote, "uncommon intelligence and sensitivity." Why is this noteworthy? Well, this letter is written by our very own Cei-U!! I've always loved reading the old letter pages, seeing things written by Ralph Macchio (the comic book guy, not The Karate Kid) or from Kurt Busiek when he was still a student at Syracuse, but this is only the third time I've run across a letter written by someone I actually know (one of our old members was the first, and my college roommate was the second), so this was an unexpected treat.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 30, 2019 12:40:56 GMT -5
Hey, congrats, Cei-U! That is cool.
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Post by dbutler69 on Dec 30, 2019 12:57:21 GMT -5
A couple of days ago I read Batman #310, a Batman Christmas story. Blockbuster wasn't really a bad guy in this one - I guess the Christmas spirit got into him!
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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 30, 2019 15:08:06 GMT -5
I really feel like this series is a mixed bag, much like the team itself. There are storylines that are really good and some that are real stinkers, and sometimes they overlap each other, so part of an issue can be interesting and gripping while the other half can be a slog to get through. I have a lot of gaping holes in the title combined with remembered stories from thirty years or more earlier, but I remember becoming a real fan for J.M. DeMatteis through the Defenders. I followed to the Moonshadow Epic series he wrote and co-created anyway. I'm sure I saw DeMatteis letters of comment in some '70s Marvels. I have serious problems with Steve Gerber's humorous touches in most of his comics work, it often hits an obvious note for me like so much of The Simpsons. I don't find it clever, it's often ruining things to force a 'joke' in, and the endless elf with a gun 'thing' was dorky and obtrusive. David Michelinie humorous touches work, Gerber more clobbers you with his supposed wit and 'skewed take' on whatever from wherever whether it fits the story or not. He's gone and many idolized his genius, and The Simpsons is up to episode godzillion and constantly rerun on numerous channels, but both their success is a mystery to me, pretty much like all that vampire and zombie stuff, or like Thai and Vietnamese cuisine and sushi... tried it, tried it again... obviously my tastes are different, though not very different... more like I really enjoy Flapjack cartoons, werewolves and Indonesian food. Elf with a gun, no... dead parrot sketch, yes!
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Post by spoon on Dec 31, 2019 19:47:31 GMT -5
Among the backlog of comics I bought but haven't read is several Chronicles of Conan TPBs. It's a series of TPBs published by Dark Horse, but reprinting the Marvel Conan series.
I read volume 3 which reprints 14, 15, 17-22. It's mostly Barry Windsor-Smith, but a couple issues of Gil Kane thrown in. There's also a very detailed Afterword by Roy Thomas. It looks like modern recoloring, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Unfortunately, the covers are not reprinted. I don't know how the process of Dark Horse reprinting Marvel comics after the Conan license worked, but I wonder if that was a factor in why the covers weren't reprinted.
Conan was smarter, or at least more verbose, then I remember him being. But I never really bought Conan comics when I was a kid; they were all my brother's comics.
Now I've started on the X-Men Epic Collection: Dissolution & Rebirth TPB. Even though my favorite series is X-Men of the Claremont era, it's been a long time since I re-read an issue. The past few years I've mostly read comics I had never read before rather than re-reading my old favorites. It's a lot more readable than I remember. I think I let the online criticism of Claremont as someone who over-scripts crowd out my memories of how much I enjoyed the series.
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