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Post by codystarbuck on May 29, 2019 18:29:09 GMT -5
ps, we are winding down to the end, with 4 issues to go. I will be covering one more Defenders title; but, it will not be the Busiek & Larsen series (well, more Larsen than anyone else) as I can't take that artwork for 12 issues. it is not Last defenders of Secret Defenders. No, I am going with the one other book that feels like classic defenders, gone a bit loopy: when Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire gave the Bwa-ha-ha treatment to our favorite non-team. Anyone who likes that other stuff can chime in with their own takes on it.
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Post by badwolf on May 30, 2019 13:38:01 GMT -5
I loved the Cutlass & Typhoon issues. Why were they never given their own series? I thought it was hilarious that the convoluted and absurd explanation of the mystery always turned out to be true. Maybe that could get old after a while... perhaps a mini-series??
I had no idea that Rufus T. Backstabber had appeared before, until I recently read the MOKF omnibus. He seemed a bit out of place there, and more at home with the wackiness of the Defenders.
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Post by brutalis on May 30, 2019 15:08:12 GMT -5
I loved the Cutlass & Typhoon issues. Why were they never given their own series? I thought it was hilarious that the convoluted and absurd explanation of the mystery always turned out to be true. Maybe that could get old after a while... perhaps a mini-series?? I had no idea that Rufus T. Backstabber had appeared before, until I recently read the MOKF omnibus. He seemed a bit out of place there, and more at home with the wackiness of the Defenders. Rufus is surely in the right place considering he inhabits the San Francisco Bay area. I thought he fit right in as comedic homage/riposte to all the sinister doings from Fu Manchu and the Kung Fu craziness. With all that heavy mood and mystery some slight silly fun acts as a counterbalance emotionally and sets you up for when the deadly shocks arrive. |
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Post by MWGallaher on May 30, 2019 19:50:34 GMT -5
Boy, do I despise Groucho imitations. There were so many in the 70's, when America developed a revived interest in the Marx Brothers, that it soured me on the originals themselves.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 30, 2019 23:26:18 GMT -5
Boy, do I despise Groucho imitations. There were so many in the 70's, when America developed a revived interest in the Marx Brothers, that it soured me on the originals themselves. Gabe Kaplan did a spot on one and did a Groucho stage show, of some kind. never saw it but once saw it listed in a title list from a bootleg video dealer. He used to break it out for Welcome Back Kotter. Of course, Pat Harrington had a pretty good one, and did him for the Vlassic Pickles ads. Nothing, though, beats Groucho's letters to various people. I used to have a book that collected some, including exchanges with TS Elliott and his legendary exchange with Jack L Warner, when WB threatened suit over A Night in Casablanca. Groucho went to town in letters before Warner finally surrendered and backed off. It was rather like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, via correspondance (and Bugs stole heavily from Groucho). I don't know whose book was funnier, though; Groucho or Harpo's. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 3, 2019 17:40:15 GMT -5
Defenders #149-150  Creative Team: Peter Gillis-writer, Don Perlin-pencils, Art Nichols (149) and Alan Kupperberg & Randy Emberlin-inks, Janice Chiang-letters, Michele Wrightson-colors, Carl Potts-edits Synopsis: Before we were interrupted by Marvel's attempt at Murder By Death, we had learned that Seraph had masqueraded as an Army officer. Seraph says she can restore Cloud's memory , though the defenders think she has an ulterior motive, based on being a Soviet spy. She acknowledges that but cares for Cloud and convinces them to help. Andromeda fills in her past as an Atlantean warrior, who had some MeToo moments and resigned and headed to join the Defenders. She is accepted, provisionally, in the ranks. the gang heads to where Cloud was first discovered and Cloud begins to act weird and manifests both male and female forms. We are interrupted by some dude, called the Interloper, who breaks open secret maps at a Soviet military base...  Back in West Virginia, Seraph takes them to a local hospital, where she inquires about Carol faber, the woman seen in the newspaper article she had. She takes Cloud to her room and finds the male and female forms of Cloud, named Carol and Danny Faber. There is an accident on a mountain road, which Cloud witnessed. She took their form; but, the psychic feedback caused pain and disorientation.. There was some kind of danger. They take Cloud to the accident spot and she goes catatonic, before awakening, with the help of Gargoyle and she recalls the dangers, as she becomes a massive storm.  In the next issue, the defenders awake in space, before space speaks to them, in the form of Cloud, who is actually Nebula...  Stars have been disappearing ad Val explains that means death to countless civilizations, when an armada of spaceships shows up and tractor beams them aboard. They end up fighting the aliens, due to a misunderstaning, before seraph smooths things over...  They then get introduced to a planetoid, which is the evolved form of the Cosmic Cube, from Captain America Annual #7...  He sent Nebula to earth to find help. They all team up and head out to find the source of the disappearing stars and run into the Star-Thief...  They arrive and, after a bit of fighting, trace the Star Thief to a little alien girl, who is sick in bed. they eventually team up and cure her...  Cloud then departs to become the star she was meant to be. Cloud and the Cube depart. We then get a short piece of Hank's dog, Sassafras, who was left in the Aerie, with the Army types. One of the GIs leaves the computer system on, after telling his buddy how Hank had hooked the holographic security system into it to visualize a game, which sassafras activates. The dog then runs a gauntlet of cameos...  ...before running into Manslaughter...  Thoughts: Well, this is Peter Gillis' attempt at doing something cosmic, and it comes across as Gerber meets Dr Seuss, minus the genius. It's an intriguing tale; but it just doesn't wow me, personally. The art also seems less, without Kim demulder. It just feels overly convoluted and it loses my interest quickly. The Sassafras thing, as well as Interloper, are setting up the final two issues. The dog part doesn't work, as the dog constantly reacts to the holograms. Dogs don't see color the same as humans (they are not color blind, as is the common belief; but, have problems with the red and green end of the spectrum and see less detail). and wouldn't react the same to the visuals of the holograms. Dogs have much greater sense of smell and scent if a major factor of how they perceive their world. The fact that Sassafras would not be getting a scent from the holograms would lead her to act differently towards them. It's not even that cute a sequence. there is an early narration piece that sas sassafras liked the soldier who left the computer on, because they would open baby Ruth bars, then forget about them, implying that Sass gets them. Chocolate is not good for dogs and if that were happening, the dog would probably be very sick, by now. At this point, the revelation of Cloud just kind of underwhelms me and I am desperate to get to the end; so, I will press on.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 3, 2019 18:29:17 GMT -5
Degenders #151-152  Creative Team: Peter Gillis-writer, Don perlin-pencils, Dell Barras-inks, Janice Chiang-letters, Petra Scotese (151) and Ken Fedunieiwicz (152)-colors, Carl Potts-edits Synopsis: Interloper is walking across a turbulent Pacific, where we see a boat in trouble...  He moves on and we see the Defenders say goodbye to seraph, who heads back to Commieland. They all head home to the Aerie, where they are surprised by Candy, dressed like the stripper at a stag party, including the bit about jumping out of the cake...  before anyone can ogle her fishnet-covered gams for too long, she is revealed to be a hologram, hiding Manslaughter, who wants to join the team!!!  He is told that there are no Homers allowed and he proceeds to fight them individually with traps, ranging from Bobby finding Candy, in the fetish outfit, tied to a bed (should have got Eric Stanton to draw this issue), which catches Bobby in a trap, as he frees Candy, then the bed shuts around him; to Andromeda getting dessicant tape (!!) slapped over her mouth, sucking moisture out of her lungs...  Wait, one female gets tied to a bed, as bait for a trap and another gets gagged? Maybe Stanton was writing this. Someone has a bondage thing going here! Manslaughter tries to whack Valkyrie on the noggin, from behind, then learns what death really looks like...  After giving us an Elf With a Gun hologram cameo...  He reveals he set the place on fire. The defenders hunt him down, save Angel and find him in a fire suit. Then, Interloper lives up to his name and subdues Manslaughter.  Manslaughter had been his student; but, the real threat is Moondragon, who has come back, after her little fun on the foundering boat, at the start of the comic...  Well, a fight breaks out and Moondragon, under the sway of the Dragon entity, attacks and is briefly stopped by manslaughter, who has psychic powers and whose madness affects her.  She licks her wounds while the Interloper speaks of aiding King Arthur in fighting the Dragon, then the beyonder shows up to deus ex machina things and moondragon comes back for more, threatening the comatose forms of the Fabers, the slime creature, and Candy Southern (in fetish outfit, suspended upside down, with a knife to her throat; someone is getting pretty kinky in all of this).    She also turns Gargoyle into slobbering monster. Val convinces Interloper to link powers and the group links up Interloper, Valkyrie, Manslaughter, and Andromeda and dispels the Dragon and turns Moondragon to dust, while the former X-men rescue the innocent. They succeed and the Defenders die, leaving only the mutants.  Thoughts: Did John Norman write this? This is all kinds of kinky, mixed with a lot of cosmic doom and a butt-insky Beyonder, just to illustrate the level of editorial interference in the end of this series. So, the defenders-originating characters "die" (for now) while the X-Men get to go back to being a team, so we can have three X-Books. I don't really care for the ending; but, at least the whole Moondragon/Dragon of the Moon thing had been a running subplot/main plot. The ending just seems to be to expedite producing X-Factor, rather than wrapping up a long running series. Personally, aside from some character elements and an issue or two, I haven't really enjoyed this book since DAK left. The Squadron Supreme issues were a brief return to form, hurt by less than spectacular art; but, there are a few really good humor issues that follow (the Seuss homage, some of Gillis' issues). For me, the defenders were still best up about issue #50, then struggled desperately after, with great peaks and valleys; but little consistency of quality. that the series would be canceled was no great shock, as it was always more cultish than best-selling; but, to get the axe so we can have X-Factor is another thing. Several titles got the axe; but, it mostly demonstrates that Marvel had become all about mutants and damn everything else. Things were about to come to a head, as DC's star was growing and Marvel was heading towards a reckoning, as Jim Shooter would be gone in a year and Marvel would fall into turmoil under weaker leadership of Tom DeFalco and financial mismanagement from their owners at McAndrews. It would take a decade to play out and bankrupt Marvel (more a financial maneuver than a real fiscal crisis), before things would have to be rebuilt. Along the way, the Defenders name would live on, if only briefly. I am not going to explore those series, as I have found little in them to interest me. However, some 20 years after this ending, one of my favorite teams would get to apply their approach to one of my old favorite series. Come back next time as the team that gave us the Bwa-Ha-Ha Justice League international gets to play with everyone's favorite non-team of misfits.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 4, 2019 8:54:53 GMT -5
Awww, the Sassafras solo story was cute! Smell isn't everything; I remember when my dad put on a Halloween mask and my dog (not a small "dog filled with fear" like Sas) went crazy barking, but as soon as he took the mask off everything was cool. You are probably right about the Baby Ruth bars though, even if they didn't contain much theobromine, Sas would probably have an upset tummy.
I really like Del Barras' inks on this. They polish up the sketchy Perlin pencils and make them look refined.
I too hated the ending (I doubt anyone liked it.) Hasty, contrived, and obviously forced on Gillis by a higher power (no, not the Beyonder, but someone who probably identified with the Beyonder.) This and the end of Spider-Woman's book were the two worst endings of a series I've ever read.
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Post by rberman on Jun 4, 2019 9:36:11 GMT -5
I really like Del Barras' inks on this. They polish up the sketchy Perlin pencils and make them look refined. I too was thinking, "At least it looks good." |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 4, 2019 11:16:38 GMT -5
Awww, the Sassafras solo story was cute! Smell isn't everything; I remember when my dad put on a Halloween mask and my dog (not a small "dog filled with fear" like Sas) went crazy barking, but as soon as he took the mask off everything was cool. You are probably right about the Baby Ruth bars though, even if they didn't contain much theobromine, Sas would probably have an upset tummy. I really like Del Barras' inks on this. They polish up the sketchy Perlin pencils and make them look refined. I too hated the ending (I doubt anyone liked it.) Hasty, contrived, and obviously forced on Gillis by a higher power (no, not the Beyonder, but someone who probably identified with the Beyonder.) This and the end of Spider-Woman's book were the two worst endings of a series I've ever read. Yeah, but that is still the animal reacting to a physical presence, not a light projection. The animal might react to the changing light; but, it will not mistake it as a person. |
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Post by badwolf on Jun 4, 2019 14:24:44 GMT -5
Sassafras should have had her own series.
There, I said it.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 4, 2019 14:37:23 GMT -5
Sassafras should have had her own series. There, I said it. Teamed up with Lockjaw! Kind of a canine Power Man and Iron Fist. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 5, 2019 20:01:25 GMT -5
Ye cats, what an ignominious end to the title, glad I bailed before it came to that! De Barras inking Don Perlin somehow reminds me of Akin & Garvey inking Sal Buscema in Rom around this same time.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 5, 2019 21:25:35 GMT -5
Ye cats, what an ignominious end to the title, glad I bailed before it came to that! De Barras inking Don Perlin somehow reminds me of Akin & Garvey inking Sal Buscema in Rom around this same time. I was going to say the same thing! They both added a major polish to the pencils. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 7, 2019 1:29:37 GMT -5
Boy, do I despise Groucho imitations. There were so many in the 70's, when America developed a revived interest in the Marx Brothers, that it soured me on the originals themselves. This is so true that I actually knew Groucho's "voice" through the imitations before I ever saw any of the Marx brothers' films or the reruns of Groucho's game show that played later in the 70s on the channels we used to get. Also, it wasn't until I finally did see A Night at the Opera and so on that I realised who it was that Hawkeye on the MASH tv show had been doing impressions of all that time. |
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