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Post by Hoosier X on May 4, 2015 13:13:24 GMT -5
I'm still making my way through Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Volume Three. Robert Kanigher wrote a lot of great stories. But did he have some kind of "stupid hat" that he put on when he wrote the Wonder Family? Ugh! Wonder Tot and Bird-Boy are the worst! ITA--and Mer-Boy ain't so hot either! I've read in various resources such as Les Daniels's Wonder Woman book that WW wasn't selling well, so Kanigher took a gamble and decided to focus on younger protagonists (Wonder Girl, Wonder Tot and their swains) in an effort to attract a new target audience of preadolescent/adolescent girls. I'm no fan of Mer-Boy and I cringe when I see him but I can't stand Bird-Boy. I think it's a character-design issue. The art is great and the main reason I keep reading, and the character designs are usually strong. I may prefer Hippolyta with black hair and I may prefer WW in boots, but the Ross Andru versions are still pretty good. Wonder Girl looks great and I have no problem with the visual look of Wonder Tot or Mer-Boy. (I actually liked Wonder Tot at first. But the way she talks gets real old real fast and her stories are idiotic. The clincher was the issue where Wonder Tot narrated for six pages!)
But Bird-Boy! His stupid bird feet and his stupid feathered bird-hood that covers the back of his head! I want to punch his stupid bird-face! I want to see Wonder Girl get a new boyfriend called Cat-Boy who catches Bird-Boy and snaps his neck and leaves him on the beach on Paradise Island (as a gift). And then Wonder Girl finds his body and tells the rest of the Wonder Family about the great tragedy and they all try to look sad for a moment. But they all burst out laughing, including Wonder Girl, and Wonder Tot says, "Me laugh! That funny because he am bird! Ha ha!"
I got a little off-track. I was going to say something about Kanigher and his low opinion of the new target audience, but I'll save it for later. Maybe I'm just resentful because the change in direction meant no more Mouse Man!
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Post by Jasoomian on May 4, 2015 23:03:34 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #95 (1980)
First appearance of Mockingbird, who is now rumored to be getting her own tv show spinning off from S.H.I.E.L.D. A perfectly solid espionage story about a doublecross and a triple agent -- the new heroine Mockingbird! Frank Miller on cover pencils! Mark Gruenwald explains how Mockingbird was created on the letters page. Also on the letters page, Claremont fields three letters about the story with Invisible Girl he wrote for issue #88. Definitely worth checking out.
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Post by DE Sinclair on May 5, 2015 11:27:51 GMT -5
I got some comics in the mail today and I may write about them later this weekend. But I have a quick question for any experts on obscure DC Implosion comics. You see, I bought Karate Kid #15 because it's a cross-over with Kamandi #58 (and you know how much I love Kamandi!). I know who Karate Kid is (from LSH) and I vaguely remember he had his own series but I've never read it. Does anybody know what the heck is going on? Why did Karate Kid have his own comic in the 1970s? I know I could look it up on Wikipedia or something, but I thought it would be more entertaining to hear it from one of my CCF comrades who may have good (or bad) memories of reading the series in the 1970s. I've got about half of the series, and I would have to say it's probably slightly below average DC 70's fare. Goofy, without being particularly fun. The first few issues have covers by Mike Grell though, so that helps. I do pick up additional issues to fill out the run when I come across them, but I don't seek them out. So I don't hate it, but it's more finding them for a sense of completion than because they were great. Overall grade: Meh.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 5, 2015 12:00:17 GMT -5
I got some comics in the mail today and I may write about them later this weekend. But I have a quick question for any experts on obscure DC Implosion comics. You see, I bought Karate Kid #15 because it's a cross-over with Kamandi #58 (and you know how much I love Kamandi!). I know who Karate Kid is (from LSH) and I vaguely remember he had his own series but I've never read it. Does anybody know what the heck is going on? Why did Karate Kid have his own comic in the 1970s? I know I could look it up on Wikipedia or something, but I thought it would be more entertaining to hear it from one of my CCF comrades who may have good (or bad) memories of reading the series in the 1970s. I've got about half of the series, and I would have to say it's probably slightly below average DC 70's fare. Goofy, without being particularly fun. The first few issues have covers by Mike Grell though, so that helps. I do pick up additional issues to fill out the run when I come across them, but I don't seek them out. So I don't hate it, but it's more finding them for a sense of completion than because they were great. Overall grade: Meh. Thanks, DE.
So, it's no Secret Society of Super-Villains or Freedom Fighters. Good to know.
What could possibly be kinda cool is a Lady Shiva appearance. Did that ever happen?
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Polar Bear
Full Member
Married, father of six
Posts: 107
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Post by Polar Bear on May 5, 2015 15:03:38 GMT -5
In the wake of seeing the *awesome* new movie, I reread Avengers #57-58, which I sometimes name as my favorite Avengers story, and other times merely rank in my top 3. Given that context, did you (or did anyone) catch the movie's Easter egg of what Ultron was wearing when he introduced himself to Wanda and Pietro?
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Post by Farrar on May 5, 2015 16:53:02 GMT -5
In the wake of seeing the *awesome* new movie, I reread Avengers #57-58, which I sometimes name as my favorite Avengers story, and other times merely rank in my top 3. Given that context, did you (or did anyone) catch the movie's Easter egg of what Ultron was wearing when he introduced himself to Wanda and Pietro? Indeed, he did look mighty imposing wearing that--how would one describe it?--crimson cowl...
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Post by Farrar on May 5, 2015 16:56:31 GMT -5
...Wonder Girl is referred to as Wonder Woman's teen sister. I think it's very easy to see why Bob Haney thought Wonder Girl was a separate character when he drafted her into The Teen Titans. She's treated as a separate character in the Wonder Woman comic. Good point! And IIRC they also occasionally called each other (and Wonder Tot) "sis" in a few issues here and there.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 16:59:00 GMT -5
I've got about half of the series, and I would have to say it's probably slightly below average DC 70's fare. Goofy, without being particularly fun. The first few issues have covers by Mike Grell though, so that helps. I do pick up additional issues to fill out the run when I come across them, but I don't seek them out. So I don't hate it, but it's more finding them for a sense of completion than because they were great. Overall grade: Meh. Thanks, DE.
So, it's no Secret Society of Super-Villains or Freedom Fighters. Good to know.
What could possibly be kinda cool is a Lady Shiva appearance. Did that ever happen?
Lady Shiva was just being introduced in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter around this time, and in her first few appearances seemed a vastly different character than the Lady Shiva we saw in later years, so I am not sure if she appeared anywhere else in DC other that Dragon's book in that era. -M
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Post by Cei-U! on May 6, 2015 9:21:55 GMT -5
Thanks, DE.
So, it's no Secret Society of Super-Villains or Freedom Fighters. Good to know.
What could possibly be kinda cool is a Lady Shiva appearance. Did that ever happen?
Lady Shiva was just being introduced in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter around this time, and in her first few appearances seemed a vastly different character than the Lady Shiva we saw in later years, so I am not sure if she appeared anywhere else in DC other that Dragon's book in that era. -M She did not. Her only pre-Crisis appearances are in the Richard Dragon book. (I heard a rumor years ago that Mike W. Barr wanted to use Lady Shiva in the Outsiders but was forced to create Katana when Denny O'Neil objected. I'm 99.999% sure it's not true.) Cei-U! I summon the sultry swordswoman!
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 6, 2015 11:29:21 GMT -5
I finished the Weird World trade last night... is gathers up all the disparate stories and puts them in chronological (rather than publishing date) order.
It's a shame there was so much time between them, it seems like if they were able to stay with one vision of the characters and the world, it could have been pretty good. As it is, it seems like a mish-mash of whatever fantasy was popular at the time... the first couple (with amazing Mike Ploog art) feels alot like Elfquest... which even Al Milgrom mentions in his 'Editor-Al' column. Then with the painted art it's a very clear LotR rip... with a Evil Dark Lord using scary horseman to chase the elves and reclaim an artifact that will let him walk again.
The last one is almost a mix of the two, but not quite, and tosses in Dragon-riding for good measure... as if someone had read the Anne McCaffrey books and said 'let's do that!'
The art, though very different, is great throughout. I imaging the original painted books are quite amazing with their pull out spreads...even shrunk down they're pretty awesome.
Sadly, the writing is very different... the characters change in both look and personality in each story, then back again... no idea if that was just time passing and the direction changing, or editorial mandate, but they seem barely the same people.
The trade is a nice package, though strangely organized. It's full of covers, text pieces, original art pages, and the like, but they are peppered throughout the book, with a bunch at the end. I would have prefered a more chronological format, as it was pretty mind bending reading in a couple spots.
Overall, I can see alot of missed potential... makes me want to see Moench and Ploog give it another shot without Marvel to deal with!
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Post by Farrar on May 7, 2015 18:34:11 GMT -5
...I was going to say something about Kanigher and his low opinion of the new target audience, but I'll save it for later. Maybe I'm just resentful because the change in direction meant no more Mouse Man! I haven't read all the way through this thread so perhaps it's already been discussed, but I find it interesting that Wonder Girl (WW as a teen) debuted a month prior to Supergirl's first appearance in Action Comics 252, in 1959. So it seems like DC in general was trying out adolescent superheroines in hopes of appealing to a new, younger female demographic (or a newer generation of that "focus group"). And the 1959 Wonder Woman-as-teenage-Wonder Girl character must have been popular, because there were many Wonder Girl stories over the next couple of years in the WW comic. Then in 1961 Hippolyta's magic camera/film splicing/"technology" allowed the various ages of WW to appear together with Hippolyta in what are known as the Impossible Stories (even if they aren't all labeled as such).
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Post by Spike-X on May 8, 2015 21:24:14 GMT -5
This morning I started re-reading Bendis' Daredevil run. Just getting warmed up, and already my face is melting off from the sheer awesomeness.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2015 23:03:03 GMT -5
Read through the first (and only I think) volume of the Golden Age Hawkman Archives, collecting the Hawkman stories form Flash Comics #1-22. Really enjoyable Golden age fare. Gorgeous art by Shelly Mayer on all but the first 3 installments. Gardner Fox's stories were usually interesting, though there were a few stinkers, and the pacing was a little rushed at times (most likely due to trying to tell done in one stories in 10-12 pages.
Picked up Grell's Warlord again-I had read the first half dozenish issue a couple years back but got distracted, so started over form First Issue Special 8 on and have reached issue 20 currently as Morgan and Tara are on a quest seeking to rescue their son. I am really liking the book, but Grell's art was much better when he was inking himself (it was bi-monthly then, he got an inker when it went monthly. Joe Rubinstein was good on the 1 issue he did, but Vince Collett a(DC's art director at the time) takes over after that and Grell's art really loses something under his pen and brush. Not terrible, but the art seems a lot less lush, savage, and dynamic under Colletta's inks than it did when Grell was inking.
Still working my way through Master of Kung Fu now in the post-Gulacy era and the stories are still a great read, but they miss Gulacy's dynamic telling.
Also picked up where I left off with Silver Age Dr. Strange-the post Ditko era. I'm a half dozen installments in and in the midst of the Umar saga. Evertett and Severin's art is great, but it's not up to Ditko's standards on this title.
Read a random issue of Sgt. Fury in the pile I Was putting away that I realized I had missed reading before, and quite enjoyed it and the Stucker appearance therein.
Also finally getting around to rereading Dreadstar. Reread Metamorphosis Odyssey when Shax did his reviews for it back at the old place, and reread The Price and the Dreadstar OGN earlier this year, , but am now a handful of issues into the run of the Epic series itself.
So digging the classic vibe and a good mix of Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and 80's material to make up my current reading material.
-M
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 11, 2015 11:41:36 GMT -5
Alien Legion: One Planet At A Time #1-3 (1993) A fairly good Alien Legion story. A race of unknown but legendary origins has consumed many a planets, and in the end laying them to waste to the point of being uninhabitable. The legion comes into investigate and find out whats going on, on the most recently invaded planet. Alien Legion has been one of my favorite space teams since I read the second series 2-3 years ago. I missed Storman's art from the second series, but I think Chuck Dixon gave us a good space adventure story in these three prestige format books. Edit: Ms Tree Quarterly #2 (1990)While I really enjoyed the story in this issue of Ms Tree, I find the Terry Beatty art really out of place to me. It's not bad art per say, just doesn't seem to fit the story. And seeing that he's doing the art in the remaining three issues that I got, I hope that I can still enjoy the stories, since Max Allan Collins has always done well with detective stories. I do really fancy the cover of #2 though. That and coupled with not having read any Ms Tree, is why I got these.
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Post by paulie on May 11, 2015 15:23:12 GMT -5
Read through the first (and only I think) volume of the Golden Age Hawkman Archives, collecting the Hawkman stories form Flash Comics #1-22. Really enjoyable Golden age fare. Gorgeous art by Shelly Mayer on all but the first 3 installments. Gardner Fox's stories were usually interesting, though there were a few stinkers, and the pacing was a little rushed at times (most likely due to trying to tell done in one stories in 10-12 pages. Picked up Grell's Warlord again-I had read the first half dozenish issue a couple years back but got distracted, so started over form First Issue Special 8 on and have reached issue 20 currently as Morgan and Tara are on a quest seeking to rescue their son. I am really liking the book, but Grell's art was much better when he was inking himself (it was bi-monthly then, he got an inker when it went monthly. Joe Rubinstein was good on the 1 issue he did, but Vince Collett a(DC's art director at the time) takes over after that and Grell's art really loses something under his pen and brush. Not terrible, but the art seems a lot less lush, savage, and dynamic under Colletta's inks than it did when Grell was inking. Still working my way through Master of Kung Fum now in the post-Gulacy era and the stories are still a great read, but they miss Gulacy's dynamic telling. Also picked up where I left off with Silver Age Dr. Strange-the post Ditko era. I'm a half dozen installments in and in the midst of the Umar saga. Evertett and Severin's art is great, but it's not up to Ditko's standards on this title. Read a random issue of Sgt. Fury in the pile I Was putting away that I realized I had missed reading before, and quite enjoyed it and the Stucker appearance therein. Also finally getting around to rereading Dreadstar. Reread Metamorphosis Odyssey when Shax did his reviews for it back at the old place, and reread The Price and the Dreadstar OGN earlier this year, , but am now a handful of issues into the run of the Epic series itself. So digging the classic vibe and a good mix of Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and 80's material to make up my current reading material. -M I agree with all of the opinions in this post. I'm stalled on Dreadstar at issue #5. I'm missing only 5-6, 15, but want to read those first 27 issues in one marathon session.
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