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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 12, 2021 9:19:38 GMT -5
OFF THE RACKSReal Readers, Real Honest Reviews  |
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Post by majestic on Oct 13, 2021 15:29:00 GMT -5
The Immortal Hulk #50.
The 80 page conclusion of the 50 issue run by Al Ewing & Joe Bennett.
And Ewing doesn't wrap up his classic run in a satisfying fashion IMO.
What I Liked: The scenes from over 100 years ago tying the Banner & Stern families fates together. The portrayal of the Hulk's different personalities. Bennett's art work.
What I Didn't Like: It felt anticlimactic and ambiguous. I'm still not sure what exactly happened in certain scenes. We didn't get the big payoff I felt this series deserved.
Still overall I liked the series.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 13, 2021 19:08:43 GMT -5
Batman: The Audio Adventures SpecialWritten by Dennis McNicholas Art by Various Summary: This anthology of stories set in Gotham over the course of a single night serves as a prequel to the amazing HBO Max series.
Plot:DC has absolutely been crushing it when it comes to anthology comics lately with a series of books based on holidays and characters characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman....but this week's addition tops them all. With McNicholas as the lead scribe(he's also one of the writer's of the HBO Max radio show as well) it's definitely a lighter take on Batman than any other book on the shelves and it revels in that difference from start to finish. I really enjoy that that although each story focuses on a different villain it's all set during the same night in Gotham and there are little allusions to what is going on in the other stories sprinkled through out both the stories themselves and the framing sequences featuring Jack Rider.All in all, this collection has a unique energy to it that while both fun and silly also has enough of that serious Batman spirit that it never goes too far into left field. I think the best way I can explain it is that this book(and the audio adventures in general) is sort of the middle ground between Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Batman: The Animated series... which is high praise from me!
Art: While the plots all had a similar tone the art was much more eclectic in its collection of styles ranging from the grungy underground look of Leonardo Romero with its bright circus colors to a manga inspired look by June Ba. And while I think every artist was pretty successful I have to say that my favorite by far was Anthony Marques who has a fantastic Darwyn Cooke/ Alex Toth style that is just stunning to see in every single panel.
Grade:10/10 |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 14, 2021 19:00:16 GMT -5
Batman: The Impostor #1Written by Mattson Tomlin Art by Andrea Sorrentino Summary: A young Bruce Wayne just starting out as Batman finds his career on the ropes when an impersonator begins murdering criminals. Plot: In sharp contrast to the Batman of the Audio Adventure Special, this is a gritty realistic take that just blew me away. I'm serious here,this new out of continuity Black Label book by Tomlin just might be the best superhero comic I've read this year and that's saying something as Lemire's Black Hammer Universe has been top notch...but man did Tomlin just know how to make Batman sing. While I don't think I'd want a gritty realistic Batman all the time, I'm certainly not opposed to a version more stepped in realism(or at least as real as a guy in a Bat costume can get) especially when it has as much pathos as Tomlin brought to the page here. We've all seen the "I'll become a bat" scene a hundred times by now, but the angle that Tomlin brought to the scene with Leslie Tompkins (more on her after) about Batman being a reflection of his quest to tame the monster inside of him, the monster born of the trauma and rage of seeing his parents murdered just felt raw and powerful. It's still absurd for a man to decide to dress up as a bat to fight crime...but the fight for self control itself felt real as a motivation and it felt fresh and new. On top of that I loved the way Tompkins was incorporated here, I'm a big fan of her as a supporting character so I loved seeing her as the person Bruce literally crashes in on when he needs help after a night out gone wrong, but her disapproval of him as Batman was done fantastically here and the mechanic of forcing Bruce to come see her for a session everyday at dawn(she's a psychologist here who apparently doubles as a field medic) or she'll call the cops and tell them who Batman is was ingenious as it allows her a way to try and "save" Bruce and a great way for us to see Bruce's feelings as well. On top of all that though what is really exciting is that Tomlin is one of the lead screen writers for the new Batman film so not only is this book great but as a sort of unofficial tie in it makes me think the film is going to be great too. I can't wait to get the second part of this book, I need like a junkie needs a fix. Art: Andrea Sorrentino absolutely kills it here delivering a mood that just hits you in each panel...and man are those panels gorgeous! I don't usually post images but a picture is worth a thousand words...so here are two   That "Crash" image is the first page of the book, and if that blocking with Tompkin's concerned face doesn't draw you in then I suggest you check your pulse. And in that second image I love the movement of the bat panels across the static image of Batman surveying Gotham, it's incredibly fluid and conveys the bullet points of Bruce's life perfectly. It's just a gorgeous book from start to finish. If you don't buy this comic you're missing out. Grade:12/10
yes.
12. |
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Oct 14, 2021 21:20:55 GMT -5
That Sorrentino art is enough to make me buy my first new superhero comic in over 10 years. Just, wow!
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 15, 2021 7:33:34 GMT -5
The Immortal Hulk #50. The 80 page conclusion of the 50 issue run by Al Ewing & Joe Bennett. And Ewing doesn't wrap up his classic run in a satisfying fashion IMO. What I Liked: The scenes from over 100 years ago tying the Banner & Stern families fates together. The portrayal of the Hulk's different personalities. Bennett's art work. What I Didn't Like: It felt anticlimactic and ambiguous. I'm still not sure what exactly happened in certain scenes. We didn't get the big payoff I felt this series deserved. Still overall I liked the series. See, I didn't care for the opening at all; that the great grandparents of the Leader and the Hulk not only knew eachother (and were married)but were unknowingly exposed to gamma radiation together making the Leader and the Hulk fated to come to be just made the world feel so contrived and small...and the whole confrontation with "god" and the references to the Kabbalah just felt like filler rather than something profound. I get it, endings are always the hardest part and a good old fashioned beat down between the Hulks and the Leader would have been unfulfilling as well...but I think it would have felt more honest at least. "Hey, I don't really know how to put this all back in the box but here's the Hulk punching the Leader! Have fun with the next story guys!" is real, unsatisfying, sure, but it isn't pretending to be more than it is...and that's what we actually got here, a bunch of words with no real depth trying to pretend to be something greater and sound more profound then they actually were. It was the kind of scene like those conversations you had in your dorm room during your sophomore year of college at two in morning after one too many beers and bong rips...it felt real deep at the time but faded away to nothing with the rising of the sun...but I'm not in college anymore so I can see it clearly from the first without needing dawn's illumination. This was just a bunch of sound and fury, which while fitting for the Hulk in a way...as the Bard said, it ultimately signified nothing. Still and all, this was a really solid run and like the runs of Peter David, Bruce Jones, Bill Mantlo and Greg Pak I'll no doubt revisit it again down through the years...but the ending is something I'll probably skip. 6/10 for the issue ...maybe a 7+ or 8-/10 for the run. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 15, 2021 7:36:46 GMT -5
That Sorrentino art is enough to make me buy my first new superhero comic in over 10 years. Just, wow! Yeah, his artwork is always great but it was really top notch here. |
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Post by tingramretro on Oct 15, 2021 16:54:54 GMT -5
The Immortal Hulk #50. The 80 page conclusion of the 50 issue run by Al Ewing & Joe Bennett. And Ewing doesn't wrap up his classic run in a satisfying fashion IMO. What I Liked: The scenes from over 100 years ago tying the Banner & Stern families fates together. The portrayal of the Hulk's different personalities. Bennett's art work. What I Didn't Like: It felt anticlimactic and ambiguous. I'm still not sure what exactly happened in certain scenes. We didn't get the big payoff I felt this series deserved. Still overall I liked the series. I disagree. I thought it was a great end to a fantastic series. It wasn't what I expected, but it wrapped everything up nicely and the scenes with the ancestors of Banner and Sterns made sense of a lot. My only complaint is that the Doc Samson/Walter Langowski subplot wasn't resolved. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 15, 2021 17:34:35 GMT -5
The Immortal Hulk #50. The 80 page conclusion of the 50 issue run by Al Ewing & Joe Bennett. And Ewing doesn't wrap up his classic run in a satisfying fashion IMO. What I Liked: The scenes from over 100 years ago tying the Banner & Stern families fates together. The portrayal of the Hulk's different personalities. Bennett's art work. What I Didn't Like: It felt anticlimactic and ambiguous. I'm still not sure what exactly happened in certain scenes. We didn't get the big payoff I felt this series deserved. Still overall I liked the series. I disagree. I thought it was a great end to a fantastic series. It wasn't what I expected, but it wrapped everything up nicely and the scenes with the ancestors of Banner and Sterns made sense of a lot. My only complaint is that the Doc Samson/Walter Langowski subplot wasn't resolved. The Leader and the Hulk being long lost cousins umpteen times removed just seemed utterly pointless to me...and ultimately it contributed nothing as neither one knows it as the reader is the only one privy to those scenes. And that they were fated to be monsters rather than being accidents makes it a whole lot less interesting and removes much of the pathos around how they became who they were. And it wasn't just the Sampson/ Wendigo plot that got lost but Betty and She-Hulk didn't get endings either. It was just sloppy all around. |
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Post by tingramretro on Oct 15, 2021 17:46:04 GMT -5
I disagree. I thought it was a great end to a fantastic series. It wasn't what I expected, but it wrapped everything up nicely and the scenes with the ancestors of Banner and Sterns made sense of a lot. My only complaint is that the Doc Samson/Walter Langowski subplot wasn't resolved. The Leader and the Hulk being long lost cousins umpteen times removed just seemed utterly pointless to me...and ultimately it contributed nothing as neither one knows it as the reader is the only one privy to those scenes. And that they were fated to be monsters rather than being accidents makes it a whole lot less interesting and removes much of the pathos around how they became who they were. And it wasn't just the Sampson/ Wendigo plot that got lost but Betty and She-Hulk didn't get endings either. It was just sloppy all around. It wasn't sloppy. To me, their connection makes it more interesting. And Betty and She-Hulk's stories are currently unfolding in other books, Defenders and Avengers respectively. And Walter is Sasquatch, not Wendigo. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 15, 2021 18:01:03 GMT -5
The Leader and the Hulk being long lost cousins umpteen times removed just seemed utterly pointless to me...and ultimately it contributed nothing as neither one knows it as the reader is the only one privy to those scenes. And that they were fated to be monsters rather than being accidents makes it a whole lot less interesting and removes much of the pathos around how they became who they were. And it wasn't just the Sampson/ Wendigo plot that got lost but Betty and She-Hulk didn't get endings either. It was just sloppy all around. It wasn't sloppy. To me, their connection makes it more interesting. And Betty and She-Hulk's stories are currently unfolding in other books, Defenders and Avengers respectively. And Walter is Sasquatch, not Wendigo. To each their own, when everything becomes too interconnected it just feels flat and overly-contrived to me. |
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Post by tingramretro on Oct 15, 2021 18:08:30 GMT -5
It wasn't sloppy. To me, their connection makes it more interesting. And Betty and She-Hulk's stories are currently unfolding in other books, Defenders and Avengers respectively. And Walter is Sasquatch, not Wendigo. To each their own, when everything becomes too interconnected it just feels flat and overly-contrived to me. To me, that interconnectedness is exactly what made me a Marvel fan in the first place and has kept me invested for decades. It's what I love about Marvel. And why I've kept coming back to DC for over forty years, too. I love complex continuity. |
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Post by The Cheat on Oct 16, 2021 13:12:06 GMT -5
It wasn't sloppy. To me, their connection makes it more interesting. And Betty and She-Hulk's stories are currently unfolding in other books, Defenders and Avengers respectively. And Walter is Sasquatch, not Wendigo. To each their own, when everything becomes too interconnected it just feels flat and overly-contrived to me. Agree entirely, the MU is so incestous these days, it's beyond parody. Last I checked, it was Tony Stark sabotaging the gamma bomb that created the Hulk. Is this retconned now? |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 16, 2021 14:13:49 GMT -5
To each their own, when everything becomes too interconnected it just feels flat and overly-contrived to me. Agree entirely, the MU is so incestous these days, it's beyond parody. Last I checked, it was Tony Stark sabotaging the gamma bomb that created the Hulk. Is this retconned now? I hadn't heard about that development but it wouldn't surprise me. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 16, 2021 15:06:02 GMT -5
That was part of the Original Sin story.... don't remember the exact details, but Tony Stark was definitely involved. I haven't seen it retconned, but I suspect (like Tony really being adopted) they'll just never speak of it again.
I decided to trade Wait on the Batman:Imposter book... it did look very good, but I suspect it'll read better as a trade.
X-Men #4 : I didn't love the power level for Jean it required, but this was a great Halloween themed done in one story. It referenced the recent Death of Doctor Strange without it being a tie in, and offered tidbits of the ongoing plot, and was a fun story... well done!
Challenge of the Super Sons #7 : I somewhat predictable ending, but still awesome. All the hulabaloo about Jon's sexuality is missing the bigger point... he a WAY more interesting and fun character at the right age than as a teenager.... he can grow up later... we have PLENTY more stories of him as a kid first that can be told. If I had my way, I'd lock Tomasi in a room and not let out until he writes all the Super Sons adventures he offered in the flash forward.
I mean, how awesome would grampas Damian and Jon babysitting the super great grandsons be? I just need more Tomasi writing Jon and Damian.
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