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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 30, 2024 14:08:37 GMT -5
OFF THE RACKS!Real Readers, Honest Reviews!  What did you pick up this week? |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 30, 2024 16:07:27 GMT -5
World's Finest Annual 2024Written by Mark Waid, Cullen Bunn, Denis Culver, Stephanie Williams, and Christopher Cantwell Art by Edwin Galmon, Travis Mercer, Rosi Kampe, and Jorges Fornes Summary: Mark Waid presents four fun stories from the wide world of the DC Universe featuring Metamorpho, The Challengers and Bumblebee.
Plot: If you're into superhero comics and you're still not picking up World's Finest then you're really doing yourself a huge disservice as it continues to not only be the best super hero book on the racks month in and month out but it's also up there as probably one of the best runs on a superhero book in the last thirty years. Waid's main feature(which will be continued in the regular series next month) was just about as perfect as it could be. Putting all of the heroes fifth dimensional imps into one room brought in just the right amount of hilarity that you'd expect and it just got better when bringing in the Imp fans of the villains strangely made things more serious. That ability to do slapstick humor to intrigue and danger is really why Waid is just so perfect, he just knows how to walk that tightrope so effortlessly and the balance of his narrative is just perfect letting him do fun, switch to heavy action and then pivot to character moments on a dime with out it ever feeling jarring. All that said, I really loved the back up features here just as much as Waid's feature. I'd seriously kill for a World's Finest Presents book set up (and perhaps ran by Mark Waid) just like this annual with various creative teams telling great one and done stories with some of the underused heroes of the DC Universe. Culver's Metamorpho story had some great swashbuckling action, Williams origin of Bumblebee was light and fast and Cantwell's Challenger's story had a great sci-fi feel that just felt perfect. I'd love a book with that kind of variety on a regular basis.
Art: I thought I'd miss Dan Mora on the main feature but Galmon's cartoony style really fit the imps well and I'm excited to see what else he gets to do as the story amps up next month. As for the rest while they all fit their stories well Jorges Fornes was definitely the best of the bunch. He had such a great, square jawed old school style that not only fit the tone of Challengers but just looked so beautiful in its own right. I don't think I've ever read anything else by him but I'll definitely be looking for more of his art.
Grade: 10/10 |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jan 30, 2024 17:14:35 GMT -5
According to Comics Hub this is my stuff for the week-Conan #7 was supposed to be out this week but apparently the UPS hub in Memphis was closed due to cold & weather and the shipment got delayed so it won't be in stories until next week.
But still waiting for me are:
Batman/Superman World's Finest Annual 1
Harriet Tubman Demon Slayer #5
Pathfinder Wake the Dead #5 (final issue)
Somna #2
The Agent #2
Thorgal Vol. 24 (can't get these through hoopla anymore so started ordering them as they come out, but need to fill in the volumes between where I was in my hoopla reading and the current ones)
Titans Beast World #6
PRH order hasn't been posted yet, but I don't get a lot of Marvel stuff. I think there's a Spidey facsimile edition coming out this week so that would be in there too.
-M
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 30, 2024 17:20:13 GMT -5
I liked the play on Most Dangerous Game in Batman and Robin...but man is Howard Porter's art just terrible. I know he had an accident that ruined his drawing hand back in the early 2000's and he apparently had to learn how to draw again but his work didn't always look like this where his human figures are all just doughboys with grotesque facial features. If this book didn't say Batman and Robin on the cover I never would have known he was drawing Bruce and Damian Wayne.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 30, 2024 18:38:59 GMT -5
Oh, and if you haven't been reading the overly drawn out Wonder Woman(I don;t blame you for that) today's Trinity special collects the only parts worth reading: the back ups with the new Wonder Tot playing with her big "brothers" Jon Kent and Damian Wayne.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jan 30, 2024 20:06:34 GMT -5
I liked the play on Most Dangerous Game in Batman and Robin...but man is Howard Porter's art just terrible. I know he had an accident that ruined his drawing hand back in the early 2000's and he apparently had to learn how to draw again but his work didn't always look like this where his human figures are all just doughboys with grotesque facial features. If this book didn't say Batman and Robin on the cover I never would have known he was drawing Bruce and Damian Wayne. Not just relearn to draw again, but learn to draw with his off hand. -M |
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Post by DubipR on Jan 30, 2024 20:49:44 GMT -5
- World's Finest Annual #1
- Local Man #9
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jan 31, 2024 16:27:16 GMT -5
I liked the play on Most Dangerous Game in Batman and Robin...but man is Howard Porter's art just terrible. I know he had an accident that ruined his drawing hand back in the early 2000's and he apparently had to learn how to draw again but his work didn't always look like this where his human figures are all just doughboys with grotesque facial features. If this book didn't say Batman and Robin on the cover I never would have known he was drawing Bruce and Damian Wayne. Not just relearn to draw again, but learn to draw with his off hand. -M Yeah, and I have a lot of respect for him on that but lately it's just been bad. I thought he was great back when he was doing Doc Savage and then Superman Beyond in the years directly after his accident but his work on Batman: Shadow War, Dark Crisis and now on Batman and Robin is just barely readable and that change so far after his accident makes me feel like it's some kind of stylistic choice which is just weird. If it's health related I definitely don't want to disparage him but at the same time if that's the case I seriously question editorial's choice. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 2, 2024 11:31:25 GMT -5
Looks like this battle with Man-Thing 2099 was Miguel O'Hara's last for a while but it does says he'll return this summer so here's hoping when he does it will be as fun as this series. I really enjoyed this new Man-Thing, his data driven bit works really well in a sci-fi way especially as our data becomes more and more monetized these days.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Feb 2, 2024 15:51:19 GMT -5
I really enjoyed Avengers Inc., the smaller stakes adventures were great and the Steed and Peel like Avengers feel was a really fun touch. I was pretty bummed that this was cut short but at least Ewing gave us a decent ending to wrap it up.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 3, 2024 14:55:07 GMT -5
G.O.D.S. #4 by Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti and Marte Gracia
Plot: Last issue, Amelia Anderson, the current Cassandra (the last in a line of prophets that see the future, but are ignored by everybody they warn) decided to take matters into her own hands by shooting an A.I.M. scientist who has created an artifact that may spell the end of the creation, but in doing so may have triggered the event. So it's up to Strange and Wyn to prevent it.
Art: For a series that was focused on magic and cosmic entities, Schiti got very little to do in the previous issues, but is allowed to flex a little here with some Escher-like environments. Also I quite like his version of the In-betweener, which is more androgynous than their previous incarnations, but fits well with the concept behind the character in my opinion and Oblivion which is constantly shifting and changing when he reveals himself to others.
Writing: There is some backstory on Robert Forson, the A.I.M. scientist who is shot and he's been manipulated his whole life to end up here. Wyn and Strange see the link between Forson and the Archmage from issue #1 and together with Aiko and her people conclude that the same force as behind the both of them and apparently there only few forces that employ both magic and science... though I'd never have guessed that as techno/magic heroes and villains have been pretty popular in Marvel UK which I've been rereading recently (also various other characters, like Dr. Doom). Mia and Dimitri are the most human in behaviour of the various characters, because they are both new (Mia moreso than Dimitri) to the world of cosmic powers, while Wyn, Strange and Aiko have all been old hands at these kind of cosmic encounters and are therefore far removed from us.
For new readers: Still not a story for new readers. The plot expects you to know a bit about various Marvel mainstays like A.I.M., the In-Betweener and Oblivion (though some of them do get a short explanation).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 5, 2024 7:54:15 GMT -5
Thorgal was fun....like mrp, I missed a good chunk in the middle when Hoopla stopped carrying Cinebook, but decided to start picking up the 'new' releases. Battle for Asgard was really fun, it's always interesting to see a difference version of the Norse Gods. Thorgal seems to be looking for his youngest child (the one he had when he was brainwashed, I think), which is a minor part of the story. The title story is Jolan going to Asgard to get one of Idunn's apples.. he had apparently acquired Thor's shield in a previous adventure and fights Loki with an army of rag dolls that are imbued with souls of warriors that didn't quite make it to Valhalla... very fun story, I'm glad I got it even though the cost/page count ratio for Cinebook isn't great.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 6, 2024 10:16:02 GMT -5
Thorgal was fun....like mrp, I missed a good chunk in the middle when Hoopla stopped carrying Cinebook, but decided to start picking up the 'new' releases. Battle for Asgard was really fun, it's always interesting to see a difference version of the Norse Gods. Thorgal seems to be looking for his youngest child (the one he had when he was brainwashed, I think), which is a minor part of the story. The title story is Jolan going to Asgard to get one of Idunn's apples.. he had apparently acquired Thor's shield in a previous adventure and fights Loki with an army of rag dolls that are imbued with souls of warriors that didn't quite make it to Valhalla... very fun story, I'm glad I got it even though the cost/page count ratio for Cinebook isn't great. I was trying to match the numbers you mention to my versions and I got confused at the issue number of 24, because the whole Asgard/Loki thing happens much later in my memory, then I looked at Cinebooks numberinig and they are weird.
Issue 0 is our issue 1 (fair enough), but issue 1 (The Star Child) is our issue 7. How many pages are each issue, because when I look at this (https://www.cinebook.co.uk/thorgal-c-141_146_215.html), so maybe they are double issues? But then our issues 15-32 all line up with Cinebooks 7-24, so if it were double issues, I'd expect those to have missing issues as well.
Any way the issues missing seem to be 2 The Island of the Frozen Seas, 4 The Black Galley, 6 The Fall of Brek Zarith, 8 Alinoe, 11 The Eyes of Tanatloc, 13 Between Earth and Light and 14 Aaricia and I know some of those were two-parters.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 6, 2024 21:46:00 GMT -5
yeah, the numbering is weird... seems like some of them are double and some are not... it has a chart on wikipedia I think? There are also side stories it seems that might have their own numbering? I had it all sorted when it was on hoopla but then it fell out of my brain.
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 7, 2024 11:28:00 GMT -5
They had a ton of spin-offs, but that was after Van Hamme left and my interest with the series dropped a ton.
So just in case the big switches in Thorgal are
- issue #29 The Sacrifice (your issue #21): Last issue by Jean Van Hamme. (After that it goes fast through the writers: 5 issues by Yves van Sente, 1 issue by Xavier Dorison, 6 issues by Yann so far)
- issue #36 The Hermit of Skellingar: Last issue (interior) by Grzegorz Rosinski, (he still does covers till issue 40) at which point I dropped the series.
And spin-offs: some artbooks, 11 issues of young Thorgal, 8 issues of Kriss of Valnor and 7 issues of Wolf Cub.
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