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Post by shaxper on Feb 12, 2015 10:20:03 GMT -5
Magnus Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #9 writer: Fred Van Lente artists: Roberto Castro and Joseph Cooper colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon editor: Nate Crosby grade: C "North Am is a bad copy of a city and a worse joke of a society. Built on a foundation of lies. Time to bring down the reality stick." -- Magnus With Van Lente's story finally in full gear, I find myself sadly underwhelmed. With still so very little explained about North Am, the fictitious world Magnus grew up in, nor what 1A really is and why Magnus isn't questioning its intentions, Magnus is already set to bring the whole thing down, absolutely convinced this is the right thing to do, and with Van Lente assuming the readers agree. Meanwhile, the action is relegated to Magnus walking around and reprogramming the commands of all robots that try to stop him. that's right: the action in this issue is watching Magnus take a brisk walk and thinking stuff. I'm not an action addict; I don't need big fights to make a story interesting for me, but if it's Magnus vs. a city worth of robots that he can reprogram with a simple thought, where's the challenge? What's the struggle? Minor Details: - Were we not supposed to know that Senator Clane was really a robot? Is Leeja supposed to be shocked by this? I'm still not clear on what the difference is between the senator and Leeja. They were both manufactured, both have an organic shell, and both have free will, not subject to commands. The only difference would appear to be that Clane has a robotic interior and that, according to the three laws, Clane therefore ranks higher in the social hierarchy than Leeja does. - I've noted before some unusual borrowing occurring between this and the current Valiant titles. The head of Valiant has expressed interest in this property, and, with Van Lente working for both companies, nods, homages, and (in this case) outright thefts across the two companies would appear to run both ways. In this case, the main villain (Clane) spending his life seeking advice from an all-powerful secluded mentor to which only he can gain audience (in this case The Central Network Core) which, ultimately, frustrates him by telling him he's taken the wrong course of action in attempting to thwart the one person who is a threat to him (Magnus) is pretty much a direct rip-off of Harbinger's Toyo Harada seeking advice from The Bleeding Monk about Peter Stanchek trying to thwart him. plot synopsis in one sentence: Magnus and the Gophs now lead a full scale revolution against North Am which essentially consists of Magnus walking around and, eventually, right up to Senator Clane, Clane televises the event in an effort to turn all of North AM against Magnus, Leeja pleads for Magnus not to hurt her "father," and Magnus lops his head off, proving to Leeja that he's been a robot all along.
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Post by shaxper on Mar 3, 2015 16:22:10 GMT -5
Magnus, Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #10 writer: Fred Van Lente artists: Roberto Castro and Joseph Cooper colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon editor: Nate Crosby grade: D "I get it. What you've gone through--it's worse than losing everything. You realize you never HAD anything in the first place. But this new nihilism...it isn't you."And that brings us to one of the major problems with this series -- Magnus still isn't a consistent character yet. In this issue alone he randomly jumps back and forth from being a pissed off anarchist to a wise-cracking smart-alec without rhyme or reason. Is he V for Vendetta or Spider-Man? Please make up your mind, Van Lente. And we're still not questioning or even hesitating at all when IA tells him to blow up the central computer and essentially bring an entire society to a screeching halt all because Magnus was lied to all his life (actually, lied to BY IA). Seriously, this makes no sense. We're finally getting an explanation about what The Singularity was, but it wasn't Malev 6 after all, it's overly confusing, and it isn't all that interesting. Honestly, I don't know why I'm reviewing these anymore. I hate this series. I would absolutely stop pulling it if there weren't only two issues left (one of which is already on my "To Read" stack). Minor Details: The one cute moment of this issue was when, in place of getting her father back, what rolls down the assembly line for Leeja is that box we've all seen on facebook, where you push the lever, a little panel opens up, and a hand comes out to switch off the lever. Cute, but pointless. Let's be clear. Magnus was lied to/brainwashed all his life to believe a government structure and culture are innately evil and must be destroyed, then goes ahead and destroys as much of it as possible with no concern for loss of life. Magnus = terrorist. plot synopsis in one sentence: Leeja is now Magnus' enemy again, but she did know her father was a robot and tries to rebuild him, Magnus destroys the central computer, but "Roko's Basilisk," a physical manifestation of all North Am robots' worst fears about God and The Singularity (which, itself, seems to have been a "Roko's Basilisk"...I think), rises from the shattered mainframe and proves seemingly invincible to Magnus.
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Post by shaxper on Mar 8, 2015 19:44:36 GMT -5
Magnus, Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #11 writer: Fred Van Lente artists: Joseph Cooper colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon editor: Nate Crosby grade: B- "No! No, they weren't fantasies! I am a hero! I am North Am's greatest hero!"It's clear that Fred Van Lente is running out of time. With one issue left, we're flying through plot points very quickly, arriving at half-developed ideas that seem interesting but feel unearned. In this case, it's Magnus returning to his fantasy world of Maury's Peak after losing to the Basilisk. You can clearly tell that this is an idea Van Lente had considered early on -- Magnus arriving at his original goal only now realizing it's no longer what he wants since he now knows that world is not real. But, even just looking at the quote at the top of this review, when did the series ever earn those words? Magnus would have had no idea he was a hero to anyone in North Am at this point, and I doubt anyone in North Am was considering him their greatest hero yet. Magnus defending an innocent citizen from monsters unleashed by Clane was witnessed by everyone in North Am, and Magnus had been sure to broadcast Clane when exposing his secrets too, but unless Magnus was monitoring network chatter that we readers were not privy to, he has no idea what North Am is making of any of this. And we never had a clear transition point where he stopped wanting his old world and started accepting his new one. Just last issue, he wanted to blow everything sky high specifically because his world had been a lie, and the intro to this issue even still explains that Magnus "just wants his life back." So everything is feeling quite rushed. That being said, this is a decent enough issue otherwise, with Magnus seeming crazy to the residents of the fantasy world he is from, especially his new son. It feels like something out of the Tom Peyer run in its mixture of real human drama and chuckle-worthy absurdity as Magnus drives his car off a cliff in order to get back to reality, all as his disbelieving son and girlfriend watch in utter confusion and horror. Still not a great series. Still not something I'm glad I'm reading. But this installment wasn't so bad; it was just rushed. Minor Detail: Magnus' obsession over exposing the true reality, even if it's unpleasant for him and those around him, once again feels reminiscent of The Matrix. plot synopsis in one sentence: Magnus is back in the program/illusion that he came from but, with full knowledge that it isn't real, he spends the issue trying to fight his way out of it as Moira and Leeja gather North Am's residents in the Goph levels while the Basilisk destroys society, only to encounter the reincarnated human-looking form of H8R, and Magnus escapes Maurey's Peak, driving his son's car off of a cliff and into the great white unknown. To be continued...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2015 5:40:32 GMT -5
There's a writer-to-writer interview of Fed Lente (done by Ben Blacker & Ben Acker about the wrap up of Magnus here for those interested. The issue comes out tomorrow so there may be spoilers. It seems to be more about Van Lente than Magnus, but there might be something of interest in there. -M
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Post by shaxper on Mar 16, 2015 19:03:15 GMT -5
Magnus, Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #12 writer: Fred Van Lente artists: Joseph Cooper and Robert Castro colors: Mauricio Wallace and Aikau Oliva letters: Marshall Dillon editor: Nate Crosby grade: B- Well, it's an ending. Considering the nature of this series, it's not surprising to find a solid ending that, when you stop to think about it, doesn't take the premise nearly far enough (we never learn anything more about the singularity itself, nor what happened to Earth outside of North Am) and, on the other, leaves quite a bit still unaddressed (what happened to Clane, what's the political fall-out of all this that both he and Magnus were so concerned with up until now, are Magnus and 1A EVER going to talk about having been lied to and manipulated since birth, and is H8R ever going to bring up the fact that Magnus ditched him and left him to die?). Still, watching Magnus get repeatedly reincarnated in order to take down the basilisk, as well as landing in a final point that feels somewhat closer to the original Russ Manning premise, worked out nicely. Important Details: Oops. Was I supposed to have understood all along that the Turing robots and the softbodies were NOT on equal footing? I got that the Turing robots treated humans as slaves, but I thought being turned into a soft body was the ultimate reward for a turing? Senator Clane certainly appears to be flesh. I guess I don't follow that soft line dividing the very lowest class in North Am from the very highest. Does it come down to having internal organs??? Not a brilliant, well planned, well placed, nor particularly well-written series, but it had its moments, and this final issue certainly contained a few of them. plot synopsis: H8R returns with the revelation that any Turing computer can be reprinted through a fleshpot as a "softbody" that is pretty much human, he is able to reprint Magnus after the basilisk kills him, and after the basilisk kills him again, we see an entire fake lifetime go by at Maurey's Peak in which Magnus essentially becomes his own grandson and returns to the world via the fleshpot as a robot fighter, killing the Basilisk, and bringing about a new world in which any Turing robot can become a human, and humans are in charge once again, with Magnus to defend them against rogue Turing robots.
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Post by shaxper on Mar 16, 2015 19:15:08 GMT -5
The Fred Van Lente RebootMagnus, Robot Fighter (2014) #0-12, Dr. Spektor (2014) #2-4 2014-2015 Grade: D+ Overview: A series that tried too hard to "shake up" the basic premise, leaving little of the franchise's core left intact. We've seen wild departures before, largely during the Valiant runs, but each still kept some fundamental pieces of the basic Magnus Robot Fighter story in play. Beyond a mentor named 1A, a ruler named Clane, a daughter named Leeja, and some robots that need smashing, this story was utterly different. And yet, in spite of all that, it wasn't particularly clever, raised questions it never bothered to answer, and generally failed to paint Magnus as a compelling or even well defined protagonist. Magnus' ability to rewrite robot command line coding and the hilarious, Ebonics-wielding sidekick H8R aside (though how sad that the 1960s series had a more progressive attitude towards African Americans than Van Lente does in 2014), this series had little to offer. Worth noting: The Dr. Spektor appearances feature a very different Magnus that does not align at all with what we see in the core title. The character (briefly) appearing in Dr. Spektor #2-4 feels closer to the original Magnus character. Worthwhile to read?:No. Really not. This is the first time that reading a Magnus volume felt like work for me, and there was no reward by the close. Key issues/highlights:#2 and #3: The only issues of this series that I really found enjoyable. After that, the plot and pacing meander far too much without any solid characterization to pull them through. Worth Re-reading?:No. Really, no.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Sept 30, 2015 18:16:52 GMT -5
I'm three issues deep in the original series. (I am a little behind.)
.... Quite good. I'm not sure why I like the art as much as I do. It's not design heavy or stylized but something just clicks for me. And I do agree that it's shockingly violent, even by modern standards. Like you can really feel metal breaking as the robots go "Squee!"
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Post by shaxper on Sept 30, 2015 19:32:41 GMT -5
I'm three issues deep in the original series. (I am a little behind.) .... Quite good. I'm not sure why I like the art as much as I do. It's not design heavy or stylized but something just clicks for me. And I do agree that it's shockingly violent, even by modern standards. Like you can really feel metal breaking as the robots go "Squee!" Yes, it's hard to place exactly what about the art is so enticing. It's very pre-Kirby in its action, poses, and general arrangements, but there's still a palpable energy present, especially in those loving shots of North Am. And I love how composed and calm Magnus can look one moment, leaping into extreme robot-murdering action the next.
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Post by shaxper on Aug 29, 2016 20:41:16 GMT -5
The Gold Key Alliance RebootGold Key Alliance (2016) #1-5 2016 Grade: C+ Overview: An odd five part limited series that enjoys throwing curve balls a tad too much. You think you're getting one new take on a classic Gold Key character but--surprise!--it's a different new take entirely, and then that new take meets another new take, and then a bunch of new takes are all assembled together to save the universe in a hastily assembled plot, and then the Gold Key heroes are all removed from all versions of reality -- the ultimate interdimensional suicide that comes out of nowhere. If you're a little lost, so was I. Gold Key Alliance is really an unending torrent of half (or maybe quarter) considered ideas that borrows generously from past continuities (Gold Key originals, Valiant Unity, Valiant Unity 2000, Jim Shooter's Magnus Robot Fighter, and Fred Van Lente's Magnus Robot Fighter), but always in minor surface ways without really capturing any of the spirit or larger concepts that were at the core of those incarnations. Oh, and it's DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths too, but with far less of a plot. At the end of the day, this is a series that wasn't about anything, didn't really tell a story, and couldn't even decide upon a version of any of the Gold Key characters to explore with any depth. Magnus, as presented here, is generally similar to his original counterpart with some slight changes (his body has been physically reinforced, he is super fast, he earned his name by beginning his career posing as a robot that was fighting (get it? Magnus, Robot Fighter?), the Jim Shooter twist of Magnus attempting to play redeemer to the robots as well as the humans is present, and the Fred Van Lente twist of 1A and H8 being the same is reintroduced, but there's no true vision at the core of all this. It's just another fun twist on Magnus that we're only given ten pages to explore before we move on to the plot (if that's what you call it), meet a bunch of other variations of Magnus that get roughly one line each, and then everything ends up getting erased anyway. Worth noting: In the first two issues, Magnus is in Himalhina, a city that hasn't been mentioned since volume #1 #20. Worthwhile to read?:Eh. Unlike Unity 2000 (which this lack-of-story very closely represents in structure), there's nothing offensive about this volume; it just somehow manages not to feel like it's doing very much while also blowing up the multi-verse and annihilating every version of every Gold Key hero in the process. Worth Re-reading?:Maybe, just for morbid curiosity. I'm sure someone else will eventually revive these properties again but, for now, this truly feels like an ending with a capital "E".
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Post by shaxper on Jun 15, 2017 9:24:59 GMT -5
Sovereigns #0 and #1 writer: Ray Fawkes (Magnus portion by Kyle Higgins) artists: Johnny Desjardins (Magnus art by Jorge Fornes) editors: Matt Idelson and Kevin Ketner grade: B- Two years after Dynamite's previous Magnus series was cancelled, and one year after Dynamite nuked the entire Gold Key universe, we somehow have a new Gold Key Universe completely apart from what came before. New writers, new editors, and an entirely new approach. Whereas Magnus previously appeared in his own title as well as Doctor Spektor's with seemingly no coordination between the two works, Kyle Higgens and Jorge Fornes (the creative team for the new Magnus title) actually get to do the Magnus portions of the new Sovereigns title as well. Now that's coordination. And yet the big mystery this time around is who Magnus actually is. In Sovereigns #0 and #1, we meet a female Dr. Magnus who has set up shop as a sort of robot therapist, helping out when servant robots are not fulfilling their duties correctly. And yet, in both issues, we also meet a Magnus who appears to be a world leader and is regarded as the Robot Messiah, "the man who bridged the rift of understanding humanity and technology to benefit all." This Magnus is part machine and has a sort of Tony Stark setup with an A.I. that reports to him and provides him with external armor when appropriate. So which one of them is "Magnus"? It's hard to get a sense for the writing yet, as we've spent so few pages exploring the two Magnuses thus far, and the art is decent but not particularly impressive. From the legacy standpoint though, while this seems like a stronger start than the Van Lente reboot, there are some red flags that concern me, first and foremost being this interview in Sovereigns #0 with writer Kyle Higgins: Excerpt #1: Sigh. This isn't like doing a run on Superman or Batman, who have been in continuous publication for nearly a century. Magnus has spent less than seventy issues, across five decades, in his traditional context as hero to North Am. That context has not been exploited anywhere near enough and has a ton of potential left to be tapped, but the trend in comics now is to bring in Young Guns who have no respect for the original property and intend to use the basic premise to do something entirely different. Even if this ends up being a great series, if it isn't firmly rooted in "what's come before," then it does the Magnus franchise a tremendous disservice. Magnus shouldn't be stuck in his 1960's characterization; the character must be free to grow and evolve, but the world of North AM and Magnus' basic role in it -- that was the most compelling spect of the property, and it still has legs and under-utilized facets. More from the interview: Everything wrong with modern comic reboots in one answer. Yeah, Higgens doesn't seem to have much interest in any "Magnus" beyond the one(s?) he's writing. As I suggested above, this Magnus is stripped of the core concept that made Magnus Magnus: the far flung future setting of North Am. The Magnus Robot Messiah exists in 2020, alongside Dr. Solar, Turok, and Dr. Spektor and resides in Oslo, and we aren't yet told whether or not Dr. Magnus exists in the same time period and location. But Magnus without North Am? What's the point?? Beyond having a connection to machinery, I've yet to see what about this incarnation in any way resembles the classic Magnus Robot Fighter. So I'm not holding out much hope for this reboot. In fact, it feels a tad insulting to be buying, reading, and reviewing a series written by a guy who can't even answer the question "what are the elements about Magnus that make the character such a timeless classic?" but I suffered through the Van Lente reboot; I can give this a try.
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Post by shaxper on Jun 15, 2017 10:26:35 GMT -5
Magnus #1 (Dynamite 2017) writer: Kyle Higgins art: Jorge Fornes editors: Matt Idelson and Matt Humphreys grade: B- Well it's better than I expected. From a legacy perspective, much of the basic premise of Jim Shooter's Magnus is in play, albeit in a different format. So we're in the very near future, we have AIs, and they have developed their own cloud mind within which they can retreat to get away from humans and the toil of their everydays. The government (which?) has even ruled that their masters are required to grant them four hours leave into the cloud each day. Thus, when a robot servant kills its master (also the CEO of the leading company that builds robot servants) a tense cultural stalemate is on the verge of exploding. It's insultingly simplistic, with all AIs apparently working together to create a paradise with no conflicts nor differences among them, every human other than Magnus being over-the-top cruel and/or ignorant in regard to robots and their plight, and some of the logistics just not making any sense (wouldn't the AIs be smarter than humans at this point? Why does time matter to them -- couldn't they live a lifetime in the cloud for those four hours?) but I think I like the central character. Tom Peyton was the first to put forward the concept of a female Magnus (as an alternate universe version of Magnus), but Higgins does it well, presenting a character who truly feels female without relying upon cliches nor stereotypes, and artist Jorge Fornes never exploiting her sexuality nor physical appearance for the sake of sex-deprived male readers. This character feels authentic and is treated respectfully. Can a Magnus reboot work when all it shares with previous versions is a basic concept that wasn't even part of the original series? Maybe, maybe not, but I at least like the idea of Magnus as a woman. Since the original character had no real character, messing with him isn't a problem for me. This Magnus might work better than previous incarnations, in fact. Higgins is playing up a motherly sentiment in Magnus that helps to explain her sympathies towards the freewill robots quite well. It's the loss of North Am I'm still strugging with. Incidentally, the other Magnus (the Robot Messiah) does not appear in this story at all, nor does he get mentioned. I'm tempted to treat him as belonging to a different time period, except that Sovereigns #0 and #1 explicitly stated he was in the year 2020, which is around when this story appears to take place (no date is actually given). IMPORTANT DETAILS: - Magnus used to be a robot retriever/hunter, but gave that up over ideological reservations - Magnus is one of the only humans who can enter the A.I. cloud and return without losing her mind. - One legacy component is still retained in this version: 1A was still the first freewill robot (and even looks the same), but there's no indication he ever had any interaction with Magnus as of this issue. So there isn't much of a story yet, and I'm not itching to read the next issue, but I at least like the characterization of Dr. Magnus thus far. There's been a trend in comics as of late to put women in the roles of traditionally male legacy characters. I haven't read any of those attempts, but they all seemed forced. This one is working.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 10:37:52 GMT -5
That was interesting. I am not following any of Dynamite's Gold Key reboots since they seemed to throw out everything that made the characters interesting to me. At least you are fair in your reviews. I have to give you props. I would not have been able to read it with an open mind as you did.
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Post by shaxper on Jun 15, 2017 10:42:32 GMT -5
That was interesting. I am not following any of Dynamite's Gold Key reboots since they seemed to throw out everything that made the characters interesting to me. At least you are fair in your reviews. I have to give you props. I would not have been able to read it with an open mind as you did. My Planet of the Apes reviews required me to read far worse treatment of legacy properties than this. When you've been through Comic Book Hell itself, Comic Book Limbo doesn't look so bad
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 15, 2017 12:55:30 GMT -5
I pulled this to see what the heck was going on... I'll probably get in next week. Doesn't sound promising though. I'm really, really tired of writers taking their story and glomming it on to existing properties for marketing purposes.
if you want to move the direction of a character in a logical way through the story, great... but don't make something totally different with the same name and expect it to work.
For every sale you get from a Shax that loves the property, you probably lose one from someone that 'knows' they don't like it.. and those you get are almost guarnteed to be disappointed. Yet they still do it over and over again. Why?
Some day, comics will get this (I hope!)
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Post by shaxper on Jun 15, 2017 16:17:23 GMT -5
Sovereigns #2 In my review of issues #0 and #1 of this title, the one real compliment I extended pertained to inter-title alignment. I respected that Magnus writer Kyle Higgins and artist Jorge Fornes were brought in to handle the Magnus portions of Sovereigns. Now, in our first issue without them, it becomes clear that I was mistaken. They were never handling the "Robot Messiah" Magnus seen in this title; that's coming from Sovereigns writer Ray Fawkes and artist Johnny Desjardins. All Higgins and Fornes contributed were those unrelated pages starring "Dr. Magnus" that now seem entirely outside of the events of The Sovereigns in hindsight. It was just teaser publicity for that upcoming title, "Dr. Magnus" being the protagonist of the solo title, and "Magnus Robot Messiah" being a protagonist in this one, no acknowledgement offered that these two titles and creative teams have given us two completely different characters (not even sharing the same gender) occupying seemingly the same universe in seemingly the same time period, and sharing the same name. Does anyone at Dynamite even care? Is this flagrant laziness, or will an explanation ultimately be offered? It's impossible to tell, and that suggests the former over the latter. Sloppy sloppy stuff. The story itself? Really seems like there isn't much there, and Fawkes is trying to hide that by leaving enigmas wherever possible. Numerous times, an opportunity to explain something is presented, but the opportunity is squandered in order to keep us wondering and/or to keep tension building. Sure seems like all this plot has going for it is that the Gold Key heroes have saved humanity, become akin to gods, and now something evil and powerful is coming for them which somehow has its roots in the future of Mighty Samson. The writing isn't great, the characterization is utterly non-existent, and the plot seems generic thus far. Nothing about this is bad, but beyond the unique concept of the Gold Key heroes being propped up like gods in a near future setting, there's nothing all that good about it either. Grade: a solid C
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