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Post by commond on Sept 8, 2024 5:05:01 GMT -5
Some reviews:
The Prisoner: Shattered Visage -- this was okay but felt inconsequential to me and didn't add anything to the legacy of the show. The best thing about it was the art.
The Demon #1-26 -- one of the darlings of Direct Currents, I suspect because editor Dan Raspler pushed to have the cover artwork included in each issue. Then again, Raspler edited books always had striking covers so he may not have had to push so hard. This is a fun comic. It's not as serious as Sandman or Hellblazer, but it's decidedly off-kilter and covers some of the same terrain. Grant brings plenty of humor and charm to the book, and surrounds Etrigan with a strong supporting cast, which is important in any ongoing title but particularly in a book where the lead character is a quasi villain. Grant and Raspler deliberately chose to make it a comic for all-ages so that they could feature special guest stars like Batman and Lobo. For the most part, those guest appearances are better than the typical cash grab. Occasionally, Grant pokes fun at trends in modern comics, but the jokes are a little too close to the bone. Given that Grant was responsible for a flood of Lobo books, it's hard to take the satire seriously when he's cashing all those checks. A large part of the book's appeal is the art of Val Semeiks, who provides the book with a consistent look through the first two years. He has a slightly exaggerated cartoony style that makes Etrigan pop off the page. You can tell he's having a lot of fun with the book. Matt Wagner fills in for an issue. Not his best work, but fun to see him work on The Demon again. Dwayne McDuffie is writing the current storyline and it's been a seamless transition from Grant to McDuffie, largely because Semieks is still penciling the book. I'm glad I finally read this after all these years of remembering it fondly from Direct Currents.
Hitman #6-32 -- this isn't strictly from the Direct Currents era, but it's a book I wanted to return to because I know it has a following around here. I found the early issues off-putting and struggled with McCrea's art early on, but I stuck with it and eventually Ennis delivered his usual blend of human stories behind the guts and gore, and gutter humor. Tommy is another cool-as-fuck stand in for Ennis, and his relationship with Tiegel is extremely well-written. I also came to accept and appreciate McCrea's art. Enjoying this series so far.
Shade, the Changing Man #43-64 -- I stopped reading Shade a while back in the mid-40s not because I wasn't enjoying it but because my interest was pulled in other directions. I suppose it does sag a little in the middle as many series do, but the storyline that leads into issue #50, A Season in Hell, as as good as any Vertigo storyline from the era and right up there with Sandman, Ennis' Hellblazer and Sandman Mystery Theatre. Issue #50 is an amazing issue. Apparently, it was supposed to be the final issue in the serious but they kept it going for a while longer. The issues that follow could have easily been a disappointment but so far they've been entertaining. I'm not sure if Milligan can stick the landing, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with. Sean Phillips was supposed to replace Chris Bachalo, but he only lasts a few issues and then you get the art switching between Mark Buckingham and Michael Lark. Richard Case seems to have the gig now. None of them can match Bachalo for his depiction of Shade's madness, but it's not a bad lineup of artists.
L.E.G.I.O.N '89 #1-10 -- this was another book that captivated me as a kid whenever I'd read Direct Currents. It got off to a rocky start and was by far the worst of the books I've been reading lately. Team books are hard to get off the ground, but Kitson's art was so ugly in the first few issues that I wondered if it was worth continuing with. It didn't help that Kevin Maguire was doing the covers for the book. (What a loss for comic readers when he went to covers only.) Fortunately, Kitson's art improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the first 10 issues, and Giffen and Grant were able to breathe some life into the characters. Vril Dox is one of the most unique and interesting characters I've encountered in a while, and Lobo has been surprisingly entertaining. Bek still whinges too much, but I guess he graduated from the Chris Claremont School of Character Development. I was surprised by how much this book grew on me given how ghastly the first few issues were.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 8, 2024 19:03:13 GMT -5
I can only speak to Shattered Visage, which I covered in my Prisoner review thread. I quit enjoyed it and liked Mark Askwith throwing in other spy properties into the mix, like John Le Carre's Smiley works and some others. Much of it is built around the structure of Alice in Wonderland and it serves mostly as a revisit to the concepts of the series and plays with it in a modern environment. Of anything that has been done outside the original series, I felt it was the best at capturing the spirit and flavor of it. The Thomas Disch novel is good, but felt like it didn't really come together, while the Hank Stine novel was like a lighter episode of the series, but little more. The later Prisoner comic, from Peter Milligan has moments; but, I didn't care for his "explanation" for The Village and who was behind it. I think it works best when you leave the mystery intact. Shattered Visage mostly did that, as there are still secrets within secrets, even at the end.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 8, 2024 21:16:05 GMT -5
I should read that Demon series one of these days... I really liked the New 52 Demon Knights and of course the original.
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Post by commond on Sept 22, 2024 19:28:29 GMT -5
The Demon #27-39, Annual #1 -- these issues cover the end of Alan Grant's run on the book. Grant takes a break from issues #26-29, which features a four-part storyline by Dwayne McDuffie where Etrigan runs for president. It's essentially a parody of the 1992 US presidential election, but it becomes eerily prescient when Etrigan promises to make America great again. Superman gets involved, which raises the interesting notion of how Superman has always chosen to keep his politics private (a hero's politics being honestly something I've never considered before when reading comics.) For a fill-in it does a remarkable job of fitting into the continuity of the title and doesn't disrupt the flow of the series in any way, shape or form. It helps that Val Semeiks continues to pencil the storyline instead of having a fill-in artist. Semeiks leaves as Grant returns, and Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney take over as the new creative team. They had their only indie series in the 80s called Roachmill and had done work for Dark Horse. Hedden quit the business in '94 while McWeeney stuck around for few years after Hedden. They do an admirable job of replacing Semeiks. They kind of remind me of the artists that replaced the big name First Comics pencillers in the late 80s, who also did an admirable (and underrated) job. Hedden doesn't draw Etrigan anywhere near as well as Semeiks, though, so you lose some of the principal charm of the Grant run. The final stretch of the run isn't Grant's best work on the title. It's a long, drawn out storyline that was supposed to last four issues but takes up the remainder of Grant's run on the book. It's basically a road trip where they try to get Harry the Pillow's soul back. It's not bad, but Grant indulges in his worst tendencies a bit, including more "all-singing" issues and bringing back Lobo again. I actually preferred the annual as a swan song to Grant's run on the book. It's a tie-in to the Eclipso: The Darkness Within crossover, but very well done as far as crossovers go and the pencils from Joe Phillips and Dave Johnson are nice. Interestingly, for an all-ages title there is an incredible amount of sex and violence. The blood and gore they may have gotten past the code because it's demons having their heads torn off and not people (though a fair amount of regular folk die during the series), but when Jason Blood and his love interest finally hook up they spend more having sex than Dr. Strange and Clea. Garth Ennis and John McCrea take over after Grant, and I'm curious to see where they take the book.
Shade, the Changing Man #65-70 -- might as well get this out of the way: the ending to Shade, the Changing Man isn't great, and yeah, it probably would have been better if they'd finished it with issue #50. That said, I enjoyed the majority of the final 20 issues. It just doesn't have an amazing storyline to cap things off. In fact, it kind of peters towards the end and lacks the emotional punch that you want from a finale. It doesn't help that Richard Case isn't the most visual storyteller, or that his Shade looks so unappealing, but mostly it's Milligan struggling with how to end the book and wrap up all of the loose ends. There are a couple of characters introduced late in the series that don't have satisfying story arcs, and it's a bridge or two too far as far as the overall series goes. Ignoring that, it's still a great series and one of Vertigo OGs. Glad I read it, wish it had had a better ending.
Spectre #48-62, 0, Annual #1 -- I stopped my re-read of this a few years ago because I hated the storyline about the American Talisman (and still do.) This series simply bothers me. There's too much philosophizing and navel-gazing. Ostrander lacks any sort of subtlety in the social and moral issues he presents. The art is messy, and I hate the 90s coloring and lettering fonts they use. The covers are amazing, but the interiors leave me cold. I was even in two minds over the ending. Yeah, you put Corrigan to rest and put the toys back in the toy box, but you also made it extremely difficult for the next writer who takes on The Spectre to undo the ending. It's no wonder that subsequent reboots have been unsuccessful. He's not a creator-owned creator and the books exists within DC's ongoing continuity, so while it may have been a fitting end to fans of the series, I can see how it was problematic going forward. I know this series has ardent fans, and I don't want to pan it too much, but in my humble opinion it peaks in the first year and even that storyline is dated in the way that a lot of AIDS awareness stuff rom the 90s feels dated today. I'm not saying it wasn't relevant at the time, but as with the rest of the series, it's heavy-handed. There was a time when I thought Ostrander was one of the better writers in comics, but I'm wavering on that a bit.
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Post by Calidore on Sept 22, 2024 22:09:24 GMT -5
and Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney take over as the new creative team. They had their only indie series in the 80s called Roachmill and had done work for Dark Horse. Hedden quit the business in '94 while McWeeney stuck around for few years after Hedden. Roachmill was great fun, and I'm sad that it seems to be forgotten now. I have no memory of Hedden & McWeeney doing anything else, but this might actually tempt me to check out their Demon arc. |
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Post by Chris on Sept 23, 2024 1:13:01 GMT -5
Spectre #48-62, 0, Annual #1 -- I stopped my re-read of this a few years ago because I hated the storyline about the American Talisman (and still do.) This series simply bothers me. There's too much philosophizing and navel-gazing. Ostrander lacks any sort of subtlety in the social and moral issues he presents. The art is messy, and I hate the 90s coloring and lettering fonts they use. The covers are amazing, but the interiors leave me cold. I was even in two minds over the ending. Yeah, you put Corrigan to rest and put the toys back in the toy box, but you also made it extremely difficult for the next writer who takes on The Spectre to undo the ending. It's no wonder that subsequent reboots have been unsuccessful. He's not a creator-owned creator and the books exists within DC's ongoing continuity, so while it may have been a fitting end to fans of the series, I can see how it was problematic going forward. I know this series has ardent fans, and I don't want to pan it too much, but in my humble opinion it peaks in the first year and even that storyline is dated in the way that a lot of AIDS awareness stuff rom the 90s feels dated today. I'm not saying it wasn't relevant at the time, but as with the rest of the series, it's heavy-handed. There was a time when I thought Ostrander was one of the better writers in comics, but I'm wavering on that a bit. One of the reasons DC ended the Jim Corrigan version of the Spectre is because the character was created by Jerry Siegel. In the late 90's, a legal window was approaching that would permit the Seigel estate to file a copyright claim on Superman. Which they did. A similar claim could be filed on the Spectre roughly a year and a half later. Changing the Spectre substantially was a strategy to help DC plausibly claim the character they were publishing was not the same character Siegel created, reducing any possible royalties or fees they would have to pay to the estate. This was probably a driving factor in turning Superman blue around that time. They may not have planned to keep electric Superman around permanently, but they were probably testing how far they could alter him and still sell books, as well as getting readers used to the idea of the character changing. Think of New Coke - change it a lot, revert it back, and when you change it by a lesser amount later, there's far less resistance. |
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Post by commond on Sept 23, 2024 16:27:42 GMT -5
Spectre #48-62, 0, Annual #1 -- I stopped my re-read of this a few years ago because I hated the storyline about the American Talisman (and still do.) This series simply bothers me. There's too much philosophizing and navel-gazing. Ostrander lacks any sort of subtlety in the social and moral issues he presents. The art is messy, and I hate the 90s coloring and lettering fonts they use. The covers are amazing, but the interiors leave me cold. I was even in two minds over the ending. Yeah, you put Corrigan to rest and put the toys back in the toy box, but you also made it extremely difficult for the next writer who takes on The Spectre to undo the ending. It's no wonder that subsequent reboots have been unsuccessful. He's not a creator-owned creator and the books exists within DC's ongoing continuity, so while it may have been a fitting end to fans of the series, I can see how it was problematic going forward. I know this series has ardent fans, and I don't want to pan it too much, but in my humble opinion it peaks in the first year and even that storyline is dated in the way that a lot of AIDS awareness stuff rom the 90s feels dated today. I'm not saying it wasn't relevant at the time, but as with the rest of the series, it's heavy-handed. There was a time when I thought Ostrander was one of the better writers in comics, but I'm wavering on that a bit. One of the reasons DC ended the Jim Corrigan version of the Spectre is because the character was created by Jerry Siegel. In the late 90's, a legal window was approaching that would permit the Seigel estate to file a copyright claim on Superman. Which they did. A similar claim could be filed on the Spectre roughly a year and a half later. Changing the Spectre substantially was a strategy to help DC plausibly claim the character they were publishing was not the same character Siegel created, reducing any possible royalties or fees they would have to pay to the estate. This was probably a driving factor in turning Superman blue around that time. They may not have planned to keep electric Superman around permanently, but they were probably testing how far they could alter him and still sell books, as well as getting readers used to the idea of the character changing. Think of New Coke - change it a lot, revert it back, and when you change it by a lesser amount later, there's far less resistance. I wasn't aware of this. According to Ostrander, they were given a year's notice that the series would end and permission to wrap things up "their way." |
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Post by Chris on Sept 25, 2024 19:56:33 GMT -5
One of the reasons DC ended the Jim Corrigan version of the Spectre is because the character was created by Jerry Siegel. In the late 90's, a legal window was approaching that would permit the Seigel estate to file a copyright claim on Superman. Which they did. A similar claim could be filed on the Spectre roughly a year and a half later. Changing the Spectre substantially was a strategy to help DC plausibly claim the character they were publishing was not the same character Siegel created, reducing any possible royalties or fees they would have to pay to the estate. This was probably a driving factor in turning Superman blue around that time. They may not have planned to keep electric Superman around permanently, but they were probably testing how far they could alter him and still sell books, as well as getting readers used to the idea of the character changing. Think of New Coke - change it a lot, revert it back, and when you change it by a lesser amount later, there's far less resistance. I wasn't aware of this. According to Ostrander, they were given a year's notice that the series would end and permission to wrap things up "their way." I should clarify. Ostrander and crew may have been handed a directive to retire the Corrigan character but to do it however they wanted to, but it's also possible they came up with it on their own. The key point is as I wrote, " DC ended the Jim Corrigan version" of the character, not Ostrander necessarily. It's entirely possible Ostrander suggested it and DC went with it because it suited their reasoning at the time. As for DC's reasons for changing the character, I should point out that I've never seen anyone from DC ever mention legal challenges as a reason, but it seems pretty obvious given what was going on with potential challenges from the Siegel estate, and how they did in fact play out - the Spectre was indeed mentioned at least once during all the legal proceedings. The 1980s lawsuits against Marvel by Kirby surely influenced DC's reasoning as well. |
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Post by tonebone on Sept 27, 2024 15:56:32 GMT -5
Spectre #48-62, 0, Annual #1 -- I stopped my re-read of this a few years ago because I hated the storyline about the American Talisman (and still do.) This series simply bothers me. There's too much philosophizing and navel-gazing. Ostrander lacks any sort of subtlety in the social and moral issues he presents. The art is messy, and I hate the 90s coloring and lettering fonts they use. The covers are amazing, but the interiors leave me cold. I was even in two minds over the ending. Yeah, you put Corrigan to rest and put the toys back in the toy box, but you also made it extremely difficult for the next writer who takes on The Spectre to undo the ending. It's no wonder that subsequent reboots have been unsuccessful. He's not a creator-owned creator and the books exists within DC's ongoing continuity, so while it may have been a fitting end to fans of the series, I can see how it was problematic going forward. I know this series has ardent fans, and I don't want to pan it too much, but in my humble opinion it peaks in the first year and even that storyline is dated in the way that a lot of AIDS awareness stuff rom the 90s feels dated today. I'm not saying it wasn't relevant at the time, but as with the rest of the series, it's heavy-handed. There was a time when I thought Ostrander was one of the better writers in comics, but I'm wavering on that a bit. One of the reasons DC ended the Jim Corrigan version of the Spectre is because the character was created by Jerry Siegel. In the late 90's, a legal window was approaching that would permit the Seigel estate to file a copyright claim on Superman. Which they did. A similar claim could be filed on the Spectre roughly a year and a half later. Changing the Spectre substantially was a strategy to help DC plausibly claim the character they were publishing was not the same character Siegel created, reducing any possible royalties or fees they would have to pay to the estate. This was probably a driving factor in turning Superman blue around that time. They may not have planned to keep electric Superman around permanently, but they were probably testing how far they could alter him and still sell books, as well as getting readers used to the idea of the character changing. Think of New Coke - change it a lot, revert it back, and when you change it by a lesser amount later, there's far less resistance.If I remember correctly, when they switched back to "Classic Coke" they took the liberties to change the recipe in order to cut costs... I remember "rose hips" was one of the ingredients to get cut. And, of course cane sugar, probably. |
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Post by tonebone on Sept 27, 2024 15:59:34 GMT -5
Spectre #48-62, 0, Annual #1 -- I stopped my re-read of this a few years ago because I hated the storyline about the American Talisman (and still do.) This series simply bothers me. There's too much philosophizing and navel-gazing. Ostrander lacks any sort of subtlety in the social and moral issues he presents. The art is messy, and I hate the 90s coloring and lettering fonts they use. The covers are amazing, but the interiors leave me cold. I was even in two minds over the ending. Yeah, you put Corrigan to rest and put the toys back in the toy box, but you also made it extremely difficult for the next writer who takes on The Spectre to undo the ending. It's no wonder that subsequent reboots have been unsuccessful. He's not a creator-owned creator and the books exists within DC's ongoing continuity, so while it may have been a fitting end to fans of the series, I can see how it was problematic going forward. I know this series has ardent fans, and I don't want to pan it too much, but in my humble opinion it peaks in the first year and even that storyline is dated in the way that a lot of AIDS awareness stuff rom the 90s feels dated today. I'm not saying it wasn't relevant at the time, but as with the rest of the series, it's heavy-handed. There was a time when I thought Ostrander was one of the better writers in comics, but I'm wavering on that a bit. This was probably a driving factor in turning Superman blue around that time. They may not have planned to keep electric Superman around permanently, but they were probably testing how far they could alter him and still sell books, as well as getting readers used to the idea of the character changing. Think of New Coke - change it a lot, revert it back, and when you change it by a lesser amount later, there's far less resistance. This was a driving force behind New 52, as well, namely the changes to Superman's "armored" costume, and introducing him in a tee shirt and jeans. Significant changes that distanced him from the original Schuster version. Of course, they eventually made a settlement with the Siegel family, and Rebirth pretty much changed him back. |
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Post by commond on Oct 19, 2024 20:02:53 GMT -5
The Demon #40-50 -- I can't say that I particularly care for Garth Ennis & John McCrea's run on this book. It gets a tremendous amount of praise in the letters pages, but I fancy that's some cherry picking from the editor as I can't imagine that so many readers were tired of Grant's run. Though, in fairness, Grant's final storyline went on far longer than initially slated and may have been a turnoff. Ennis does the one thing I loathe most when a new creative team takes over -- gleefully erasing the status quo of the book -- though he has the decency to write characters out of the story, or shift them to the background, instead of wiping the slate clean. A large part of the richness of Grant's run was the supporting cast, so it's disappointing to see them thrown overboard. Ennis' rhyming is weaker than Grant's, though the letter hacks don't seem to agree, but the biggest weakness is Ennis using the book as a front to write whatever he fancies be it Nazi demons or resurrecting The Haunted Tank. That type of storytelling works better in Hitman than The Demon, and even on that book Ennis tends to indulge in genre appreciation too often instead of crafting a compelling, ongoing story. McCrea's art style take some getting used to. It took me a while to appreciate it on Hitman and it was a shock to the system when I saw it for the first time on The Demon. His design for Etrigan returns him to his Kirby roots -- the design that Kirby swiped from Hal Foster, who swiped it from Haxan. He has a lot of fun contorting Etrigan's cape. I have around half a dozen issues to go on the run, but I can't see Ennis pulling out a miracle ball. It's not a bad run -- it's an interesting precursor to the Hitman book if you're fans of that book and there's some crossover between the characters, as fans will be well aware of -- but it lacks the charm of the Grant & Semeiks run.
Hitman #33-46 -- as I mentioned above, Ennis has a habit of indulging in whatever genre he's interested in that week. Sometimes it feels like his inspiration comes from whatever late night movie he's watching. He'll touch on the stuff that interests me -- Tommy's relationship with his girlfriend, the truth about his mother and father, or his strained relationships with his father figure -- but then it's straight back into a frenzied, adrenaline filled dose of whatever shit Ennis likes. Robinson did the same thing on Starman, but eventually turned the book into an incredible emotional journey. Hitman has moments of that, but I guess Ennis felt like pushing the humor. Some of it is crazy tripped out shit that is entertaining -- the storyline where he pays "homage" to 2000 AD's Flesh is wild -- but prefer the human drama moments like the bonding between Tommy and Ringo Chen.
L.E.G.I.O.N #11-25 -- this continues to be a fascinating, and criminally underrated, team book. Giffen leaves the book after a while and Kitson becomes co-plotter. Kitson then takes a break to work on some other projects and Grant soldiers on alone. It's an intriguing book in the sense that there's not a lot of continuity from one issue to the next. Very rarely do you end the book with a cliffhanger that continues on the next splash page. Instead, you never really know where the story will begin. That was confusing at first, but gradually I came to enjoy it. The story takes place within the DC Universe continuity, but because they're off in space, far aware from Earth, it might as well be taking place in its own universe. I desperately wish that I had discovered this book when I was collecting comics full-time as this was the perfect sister book to the Uncanny X-Men. The artwork isn't as sexy, but as far as team books go it had the same sophistication as X-Men and would have been the perfect book to read after Claremont left the X-Men instead of sticking with Lobdell and Nicieza. It gives me strong Strikeforce: Morituri vibes if you're looking for a more direct comparison. Dox remains the best 90s character that nobody talks about. Can't recommend this enough.
The Shadow Strikes #1-7 -- this series returns The Shadow to his pulp roots, and the proper time period, after his previous series was cancelled. It's more solid than great, but the previous series became so incomprehensible towards the end that simple Shadow stories are a welcome respite. The drawcard is Eduardo Barretto's artwork. I generally find The Shadow to be uninteresting as a protagonist, but I like the character design and Barretto does a fine job with the art. I would have preferred more sophisticated storytelling ala Sandman Mystery Theatre, but so far the series has featured solid adventure stories.
The Power of Shazam! -- reading this I was reminded of why I was never a huge Captain Marvel fan as it's hard to wrap my head around the trope of a boy's mind in an adult's body, but I can understand why Captain Marvel fans enjoy this interpretation of the character. The artwork is an absolute tour de force. I kind of wish more noted 80s artists had done graphic novel work like this in the 90s instead of working on monthly books. The book also does a masterful job of creating a modern retelling of a classic Golden Age hero that manages to look and feel contemporary without resorting to grim and gritty storytelling. It's an elegant piece of storytelling and has a classic, timeless feel of Astro City and some of the better 90s superhero books. I'm glad I finally read it.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 19, 2024 21:15:42 GMT -5
The Demon #40-50 -- I can't say that I particularly care for Garth Ennis & John McCrea's run on this book. It gets a tremendous amount of praise in the letters pages, but I fancy that's some cherry picking from the editor as I can't imagine that so many readers were tired of Grant's run. Though, in fairness, Grant's final storyline went on far longer than initially slated and may have been a turnoff. Ennis does the one thing I loathe most when a new creative team takes over -- gleefully erasing the status quo of the book -- though he has the decency to write characters out of the story, or shift them to the background, instead of wiping the slate clean. A large part of the richness of Grant's run was the supporting cast, so it's disappointing to see them thrown overboard. Ennis' rhyming is weaker than Grant's, though the letter hacks don't seem to agree, but the biggest weakness is Ennis using the book as a front to write whatever he fancies be it Nazi demons or resurrecting The Haunted Tank. That type of storytelling works better in Hitman than The Demon, and even on that book Ennis tends to indulge in genre appreciation too often instead of crafting a compelling, ongoing story. McCrea's art style take some getting used to. It took me a while to appreciate it on Hitman and it was a shock to the system when I saw it for the first time on The Demon. His design for Etrigan returns him to his Kirby roots -- the design that Kirby swiped from Hal Foster, who swiped it from Haxan. He has a lot of fun contorting Etrigan's cape. I have around half a dozen issues to go on the run, but I can't see Ennis pulling out a miracle ball. It's not a bad run -- it's an interesting precursor to the Hitman book if you're fans of that book and there's some crossover between the characters, as fans will be well aware of -- but it lacks the charm of the Grant & Semeiks run. Hitman #33-46 -- as I mentioned above, Ennis has a habit of indulging in whatever genre he's interested in that week. Sometimes it feels like his inspiration comes from whatever late night movie he's watching. He'll touch on the stuff that interests me -- Tommy's relationship with his girlfriend, the truth about his mother and father, or his strained relationships with his father figure -- but then it's straight back into a frenzied, adrenaline filled dose of whatever shit Ennis likes. Robinson did the same thing on Starman, but eventually turned the book into an incredible emotional journey. Hitman has moments of that, but I guess Ennis felt like pushing the humor. Some of it is crazy tripped out shit that is entertaining -- the storyline where he pays "homage" to 2000 AD's Flesh is wild -- but prefer the human drama moments like the bonding between Tommy and Ringo Chen. L.E.G.I.O.N #11-25 -- this continues to be a fascinating, and criminally underrated, team book. Giffen leaves the book after a while and Kitson becomes co-plotter. Kitson then takes a break to work on some other projects and Grant soldiers on alone. It's an intriguing book in the sense that there's not a lot of continuity from one issue to the next. Very rarely do you end the book with a cliffhanger that continues on the next splash page. Instead, you never really know where the story will begin. That was confusing at first, but gradually I came to enjoy it. The story takes place within the DC Universe continuity, but because they're off in space, far aware from Earth, it might as well be taking place in its own universe. I desperately wish that I had discovered this book when I was collecting comics full-time as this was the perfect sister book to the Uncanny X-Men. The artwork isn't as sexy, but as far as team books go it had the same sophistication as X-Men and would have been the perfect book to read after Claremont left the X-Men instead of sticking with Lobdell and Nicieza. It gives me strong Strikeforce: Morituri vibes if you're looking for a more direct comparison. Dox remains the best 90s character that nobody talks about. Can't recommend this enough. The Shadow Strikes #1-7 -- this series returns The Shadow to his pulp roots, and the proper time period, after his previous series was cancelled. It's more solid than great, but the previous series became so incomprehensible towards the end that simple Shadow stories are a welcome respite. The drawcard is Eduardo Barretto's artwork. I generally find The Shadow to be uninteresting as a protagonist, but I like the character design and Barretto does a fine job with the art. I would have preferred more sophisticated storytelling ala Sandman Mystery Theatre, but so far the series has featured solid adventure stories. The Power of Shazam! -- reading this I was reminded of why I was never a huge Captain Marvel fan as it's hard to wrap my head around the trope of a boy's mind in an adult's body, but I can understand why Captain Marvel fans enjoy this interpretation of the character. The artwork is an absolute tour de force. I kind of wish more noted 80s artists had done graphic novel work like this in the 90s instead of working on monthly books. The book also does a masterful job of creating a modern retelling of a classic Golden Age hero that manages to look and feel contemporary without resorting to grim and gritty storytelling. It's an elegant piece of storytelling and has a classic, timeless feel of Astro City and some of the better 90s superhero books. I'm glad I finally read it. Obviously, I devoted a whole thread to Captain marvel, so I am a fan and loved both the graphic novel and the series. however, I never liked the idea of the child mind in adult body. In the Fawcett stories, Captain Marvel is a distinct personality and a separate entity. That concept originated, really, with Roy Thomas' Shazam: A New Beginning. Prior to that, DC had followed suit from Fawcett (no pun intended) and treated Captain Marvel as an adult hero, summoned up by Billy Batson. The genius of Jerry Ordway was giving some rationale for Captain Marvel's appearance and also why Billy Batson, under a spell or not, would follow a shadowy stranger into a subway. It also gave ou a context for Billy's life, before being orphaned and swindled. It worked better for a modern crowd. Still, the writers at DC, Ordway and Thomas included, never seemed to get a handle on The Wisdom of Solomon, in regards to Captain Marvel's power. Really, on any aspect, other than the Strength of Hercules and the Power of Zeus, whatever that meant (mostly invulnerability). Once in a while, they remembered the Speed of Mercury. Achilles was pretty well ignored; but, if Homer is accurate, he was a bit of a tool. Atlas didn't get much time in the sun, either. At least they didn't write him as being consulted every time they needed a map!  |
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 24, 2024 17:07:02 GMT -5
Read "The Odyssey" and you'll see that he learned his lesson and imparted wisdom to Odysseus. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 24, 2024 20:42:23 GMT -5
Read "The Odyssey" and you'll see that he learned his lesson and imparted wisdom to Odysseus. I've read it, but about 40 years ago. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 24, 2024 21:08:48 GMT -5
Read "The Odyssey" and you'll see that he learned his lesson and imparted wisdom to Odysseus. I've read it, but about 40 years ago. I got lost about 1/4 of the way through it. |
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