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Post by spoon on Apr 20, 2024 9:43:27 GMT -5
If you ask hypothetical or general question it's ok, but it suffers from hallucinations when you ask things like the plot of this or that issue. Which is strange since that's very very easy to google. It really comes across like ChatGPT is the kid who didn't do the reading and is now trying to bluff its way through the book report. Inventing a plot summary for Brother Power the Geek #3 is a good example.
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Post by spoon on Apr 14, 2024 21:58:18 GMT -5
I read DC Comics Presents #28 and #43. Then I read Batman #450-451.
The two issues of DCCP both have Mongul as villain. I don't own his first appearance in #27, but the second page of #28 has a recap. It does a decent job of presenting the threat of Mongul against the team of Superman and Supergirl, even though a face-to-face conflict is avoided. We don't get to see the full extent of what a populated Warworld would be like, but the famed Superman Annual gave a hint. Jim Starlin draws Mongul like a body builder who regularly skips leg day. The inks by Romeo Tanghal result in a final product that's a little different from what I think of from Starlin. Len Wein handles the scripting. There's also a "Whatever Happened to Johnny Thunder?" (the western hero) backup. This might be the first appearance by the character I've ever read. Coloring one's hair doesn't seem like a great disguise. I'm glad that those crazy kids, Johnny Thunder and Madame .44 got together even though I didn't really know them before then. Johnny's secret identity is John Tane, and he ends up with a "bouncing baby boy, Chuck." Namesake for a 30th century hero?!
Then, DCCP #43 has a Legion of Super-Heroes team-up written by Legion scribe Paul Levitz and drawn by Curt Swan. Swan draws a very different Mongul, and we actually get a big of slugfest. We also get a few Justice League members casually slipped in the story to get beat up. I have yet to read the original Sun-Eater story, but this is one of numerous references to that tragic story I've read. I like the casual story-ending laughter about how it's not bad that Wildfire seems dead because he won't really die.
I read Batman #450-451 because it jumps off from a story in the Detective Comics from the Norm Breyfogle HC. I think there might've been some miscommunication between Marv Wolfman and Alan Grant. In Detective, the evidence that the Joker is back is some hallucinations/visions by Batman, but suddenly it's taken as a sure thing. It's an interesting story involving a real estate mogul running get rick quick seminars, plus two rivals Jokers. The real Joker is a little bit out of it, and actually less brutal in the story than he has been. So the big dramatic death of the Joker at the end of A Death in the Family lasted about a year and a half. Commissioner Gordon seems somewhat competent than what Grant & Breyfogle did, but he still seems to be losing a step. Events in A Death in the Family and The Killing Joke both loom over this story. Jim Aparo is more up my alley than Breyfogle.
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Post by spoon on Apr 13, 2024 23:10:58 GMT -5
I finished the rest of the Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle vol. 2 hardcover, which was Detective Comics #613-621 and Batman #455-459. Detective #615 is actually stuck at the end of the book as it's the middle chapter of a story that otherwise took place in the pages of Batman. Sticking strictly to theme of the hardcover, we only get the Breyfogle drawn chapter.
We get a couple of social message stories involving how much trash society produces and juvenile delinquents. Writer Alan Grant seems to think that trash collectors are competing to pick up the trash from certain streets rather than operating under contracts, and I don't know how he gets that conclusion. If you can somehow gloss over that, it's a decent story. Detective #616 is a very weird supernatural story that grows out of the Penguin three-parter at the end of the book. It's also a good story, although it's an odd fit. Even though it's sort of explained, it's still a bit of a mystery, but it works. Detective #617 is hallucinatory Joker story that leads to an apparently real Joker story in Batman #450-451 (not reprinted here). I'm realizing from my spreadsheet that I actually own Batman #450-451, so maybe I should read them now. But the hallucination story works very well on its own.
Detective #618-621 is a four-parter that involves voodoo and takes place partly in Haiti. The main purpose of the story seems to be having really bad stuff happen to Tim Drake's parents. My sporadic Batman reading as kid mostly ended right around A Lonely Place of Dying, so I wasn't really familiar with his family. The story strikes an odd tone, because it makes them comedically unlikeable before visiting tragedy upon them. Was Tim living with Bruce through some agreement with Tim's parents while they were traveling the world? Anyway, while there are some good parts to this arc, in general it really drags. It feels like it could be done in two issues. Maybe folks who are better versed in Batman can trace how significant the portrayal of Bruce/Batman as a dysfunctional, anger-issues guy has been through the evolution of the character. Here it seems to more from subtext to text, as there indications that Tim following on Bruce's path might be a bad idea. We also get Tim tracking down a hacker, who turns out to be Anarky in juvy hall. It's funny, because I though the revelation of Anarky's identity in his initial two-issue arc was a commentary on dumb, self-righteous kids who are all over the place ideologically and overestimate their intelligence. Think of the 1989 equivalent of very-online people. But then I read that Alan Grant later announced himself to be an anarchist and the character as a vehicle for some of his thoughts. Oy vey!
In spite of the notes of caution in the prior arc, we get a three-parter in Batman #455-457 where Tim gets in on the action and debuts the new Robin costume at the end. It's the 90s, so he gets full leggings instead of the tighty greenies previous Robins had to put up with. Anyway, it's a very grim but very good story involving the Scarecrow. Grant really likes to have villains rack up the body counts.
Then, #458 is another message story about a mute hunchbacked electronics expert that was introduced in the three-part Penguin story that we only get one-part of later in the book. It's funny to see the repercussions of this editorial choice. In a story that was a quarter century too early for Q-Anon people to pay attention to, we learn that just because someone is a little different doesn't mean angry mobs should be falsely accusing them of being pedophiles. Batman #459 is a story which yet again have Batman reflecting on the deaths of his parents, but mostly deals with Jim Gordon rekindling romance with an old flame (I think from an extramarital affair in Batman: Year One). Gordon has been ineffectual in this hardcover and I'm not a fan of how Breyfogle draws him. I'm much more of Jim Aparo's rendition of Gordon and his competent presence, but the Commissioner does get some focus in this issue. In several recent issues, Batman has been needling Commissioner Gordon's smoking sucks. I thinking smoking sucks, but Batman's approach is more judgy & pushy than supportive & information. So wouldn't you know, Jim Gordon's happy issue ends with a health scare cliffhanger.
The out of order part 2 in Detective #615 makes it harder to get a grasp on the whole story, although I think I read part 1 when my older brother bought it off the shelves. The main takeaways are that Grant seems to really like writing Penguin and make his a sociopath. Also, birds are scary. There's also an actress that the Penguin is obsessed with as a supporting character who is very compelling in just a few pages.
A few other things worth noting. At least in the early issues of this book, the Batmobile matches the Kenner Batmobile toy we had. Every time it was on the page, I thought to myself, "That looks like a toy." Also, the HC reprints some pinups by Norm Breyfogle from Who's Who (I think probably the looseleaf version).
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Post by spoon on Apr 13, 2024 14:28:09 GMT -5
Yes, and actually almost all of them take place in the contemporary world. IIRC, it may only be "Hound" and "The Adventures" that are set in the Victorian Age. You know, putting What If?… aside, because Marvel could only tell the tales they wanted in that kind of book, I did hate how comics went down the path of designating Earths for this and that, an Earth for mainstream Marvel stuff, an Earth for the Spidey/Transformers team-up, an Earth for the early DC/Marvel crossovers, etc. It seemed to suck the joy out of it. Earth-One and Earth-Two are a whole different ball game, but as far as Marvel and DC are concerned, did we need designations for the aforementioned tales? It was fun seeing Spidey show up in a Transformers comic, and I was in awe of those early DC/Marvel crossovers. I didn’t over-think it as a kid or an adult. It all simply happened as presented. But then you’re told years later that, actually, the early DC/Marvel crossovers took place on an Earth different from the one in the regular books. Why even come up with pedantry? (It’s a hill I’ll die on) I feel like the best way to avoid overthinking these funky crossovers would be simply not to worry about the post hoc alternative universe explanations. Having joy sucked out the stories and dying on hills feels contrary to insisting alternative universes are unnecessary. Spider-Man appearing in Transformers was cool in its own right; that doesn't depend on the story happening or not happening in the same continuity.
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Post by spoon on Apr 13, 2024 12:22:31 GMT -5
(...) I'm going with my PS Artbook facsimile edition of one of the earliest graphic novels, with gorgeous art by the inestimable Matt Baker... It Rhymes with Lust
This week it's my turn to express pleasure at seeing a book here that I also own. It's a wonderfully done reprint, with - obviously - beautiful art and a pretty good story as well. So this week, I'll pick something similar: another rather recent, and nicely done, reprint of a book that until then had been pretty hard to find at anything resembling a reasonable price. I'm talking about Alien: The Illustrated Story by Archie Goodwin and the incomparable Walt Simonson that was originally published by Heavy Metal Magazine...
I've gushed about this adaptation at length before, both on this forum and on other comics-related sites, so I'll just say here that this is a book I'm so pleased to own. I think it really sets the standard for how movies should be adapted to comics.
I have a 2012 reprint of Alien: The Illustrated Story. I was thrilled when I learned such a thing existed, because I'm a big fan of the original film. There was also a high school here in New Jersey that put on a stage production of Alien. It went viral on the internet, so they put on an encore performance and I drove there to see it.
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Post by spoon on Apr 12, 2024 10:50:59 GMT -5
I have to say I am a bit surprised by this, I mean it seems Byrne rehashed just about everything else from the Lee/Kirby run of FF when he was on the book (as he rehashed a lot of stuff in his short Hulk run and on his Namor run...) I would have thought he had done this too. -M Maybe events in Hulk's title were an obstacle for him. A good portion of Byrne's FF run corresponded with the period when Hulk had Banner's mind, then was reduced to totally savagery, then got exiled to the Crossroads. So maybe he wanted to do a more traditional take on the Hulk than what he could've done during the first two periods. Then, during the Crossroads year, the Hulk wasn't even on Earth.
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Post by spoon on Apr 12, 2024 9:57:12 GMT -5
I read an issue from Byrne's Hulk run years ago. I felt bad to discover the run was so short. Then, I actually bought all his issues and read it through a couple years ago. I discovered it actually wasn't very good. I mean the writing, because the art was nice.
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Post by spoon on Apr 9, 2024 23:13:56 GMT -5
I started the Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle vol. 2 hardcover. So far I've read Detective Comics #608-612. When I was a kid, my older brother was the one who bought some of the Breyfogle issues of Detective. I think those were mostly from earlier on. As I kid, I remember feeling ambivalent about Breyfogle. He had a very distinctive style, but it seemed like lots of characters were on the verge of exploding and I wasn't digging the impossibly long cape. But reading these issues now, I'm really enjoying the art. So far, I've read an Anarky two-parter, a Penguin two-parter, and a standalone issue with Catman and Catwoman. I like that there's some grit but also some humor. There are interesting plotlines instead of just grim ambience. I like the twist that starts off the Penguin story. I was aware that Anarky was a new villain in this era, but I've never read an Anarky story. It was one of those stories that I thought at first had elements that didn't fit, but that's because I didn't see Alan Grant's plot twist coming. The denouement made the pieces fall into place. I like Grant's writing so far. My one pet peeve is that he uses British spellings for something that's in print (a letter to the editor in a Gotham newspaper). If he's ever going to use British spellings rather than American, that's where it makes the least sense. I'm getting annoyed nerd flashbacks of people ignoring the Wikipedia Varieties of English policy to replace spellings that fit the policy with their own preferred spellings. All in all, this hardcover is off to a good start, but I might intersperse reading other comics as I make my way through this book. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out that the Gotham Gazette preferred British spellings. Especially if it goes back to the 1770s. Maybe it started out as the Gotham Gazette and New York Colonial Free Trader in 1771. It was a letter to the editor from a little old lady. Anyway, I wish Alan Grant hadn't tossed a few Britishisms at the willing suspension of disbelief, but it's a nitpick about an otherwise good story.
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Post by spoon on Apr 9, 2024 21:36:19 GMT -5
I started the Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle vol. 2 hardcover. So far I've read Detective Comics #608-612.
When I was a kid, my older brother was the one who bought some of the Breyfogle issues of Detective. I think those were mostly from earlier on. As I kid, I remember feeling ambivalent about Breyfogle. He had a very distinctive style, but it seemed like lots of characters were on the verge of exploding and I wasn't digging the impossibly long cape. But reading these issues now, I'm really enjoying the art. So far, I've read an Anarky two-parter, a Penguin two-parter, and a standalone issue with Catman and Catwoman. I like that there's some grit but also some humor. There are interesting plotlines instead of just grim ambience. I like the twist that starts off the Penguin story.
I was aware that Anarky was a new villain in this era, but I've never read an Anarky story. It was one of those stories that I thought at first had elements that didn't fit, but that's because I didn't see Alan Grant's plot twist coming. The denouement made the pieces fall into place. I like Grant's writing so far. My one pet peeve is that he uses British spellings for something that's in print (a letter to the editor in a Gotham newspaper). If he's ever going to use British spellings rather than American, that's where it makes the least sense. I'm getting annoyed nerd flashbacks of people ignoring the Wikipedia Varieties of English policy to replace spellings that fit the policy with their own preferred spellings.
All in all, this hardcover is off to a good start, but I might intersperse reading other comics as I make my way through this book.
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Post by spoon on Apr 7, 2024 21:54:16 GMT -5
I read the Thunderbolts Epic Collection vol. 1: Justice, Like Lightning reprinting Thunderbolts #1-12 and Minus 1, Annual '97, Incredible Hulk #449, a story from Tales of the Marvel Universe #1, Spider-Man Team Up #7, and Heroes for Hire #7. I've never read any of these issues before. I don't think I've read any issues of Thunderbolts, except I might've read where they crossed over with Avengers beyond the time period of this TPB.
It was a pretty good read. For some reason, the TPB put Thunderbolts #1 ahead of their prior appearances. Even though of course I was spoiled on the twist, I decide to read the Hulk story first as published. The concept creates a lot of anticipation in how it will play out and how long the secret will be kept. I thought maybe it could've gone on a little longer, although it probably would've been harder to get away with the lie once the Avengers returned. I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the pre-Thunderbolts careers of the various team members, but I don't think of most of them having well-defined personalities. It's not quite a blank slate, but it's not that far off.
It's cool how Busiek constructed differing individual motivations for the characters rather than just making it Zemo and everybody else. The grey areas like how Meteorite would often due the right thing for the wrong reasons, and positioned herself as a rival for Zemo, gave these issues some Game of Thrones moral complexity. There was also some thought put into the Songbird/Mach-1 romance. Even though super-hero comics obviously float realism in lots of ways, there's a certain realism to the history for Songbird that Busiek puts together. Women commit violent crimes at much lower rates, and her involvement comes out of a lot of trauma and need for belonging. Since they were in different incarnations of the Masters of Evil, they wouldn't have prior history. I also thought both the Annual and Flashback issue were used to good effect. For a guest appearance, the Spider-Man Team-Up issue was pretty pivotal.
I'm not the biggest Mark Bagley fan. I wish Jeff Johnson, who I fondly remember from his Wonder Man work, had more than just that single guest issue. I also liked Pascual Ferry's work on the characters in Heroes for Hire. Busiek is such a comic book nerd. He really went for the deep cut by pulling out the Elements of Doom. On the other hand, sometimes he's more of a plotter/historian than a wordsmith. He's got the DeFalco disease of having male characters who should have diverse speech patterns referring to younger women as "young lady" or "missy" instead of like, their names. It sounds very patronizing. That should be a verbal tic of specific characters.
There are some things I might've liked to see play out differently, but there were also lots of twists that were unanticipated and clever takes on the situation. I'm leaning towards buying the second Epic Collection when it comes out at the end of the month.
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Post by spoon on Apr 7, 2024 12:31:35 GMT -5
Hope your wife feels better, George.
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Post by spoon on Apr 6, 2024 14:15:46 GMT -5
I just re-read the Brood saga that stretched from Uncanny X-Men #154 to 167. I remember that at the time it had truly renewed my faith in the title, which had been a little shaken by John Byrne's departure. It's not that I disliked Cockrum's art, but well... I was a real Byrne fan back then. Plus, recent issues with fill-in artists and a rushed plot had left me dissatisfied. But boy! Did the arrival of the Aliens-wannabes change things!
[snip]
All in all a truly thrilling ride, which also saw a lot of development: Carol Danvers turning into the new super-hero Binary (thanks to some genetic tampering by the Brood), the introduction of Lockheed the dragon (he hunts Brood for breakfast on their home planet), a good view of the Starjammer, which in this story is half the size of Manhattan, space whales, the Brood... those were the days of anti-decompression!
I like how it's structured with 4 issues of the Brood arc, then 4 issues of basically other stories, before resuming with 6 issues with the Brood. It finds a convenient in a break from a very long storyline, and also created an opportunity to start some plot threads off (including ones that would be used in New Mutants) before the X-Men are in space for several issues.
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Post by spoon on Apr 2, 2024 20:06:45 GMT -5
Recently read X-Men #94 and #95, which continue the adventures of the new X-Men team first seen in Giant-Size X-Men #1. The plot concerns Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men invading the U.S. Army's Valhalla Base, located inside Cheyenne Mountain and home to NORAD, America's Cold War early warning air defence centre. At the same time, the old X-Men decide to depart from the team, leaving the new, hastily recruited line-up that Professor X assembled in Giant-Size X-Men #1 to take on Nefaria. Unfortunately, during the X-Men's assault on the base, Thunderbird is killed trying to stop the Count making his escape in a fighter jet. Chris Claremont's writing is solid here, rather than spectacular, but these were only his first two issues on the series, so I guess he'd not quite found his mojo yet. That said, they were good, honest Bronze Age comics and a lot of fun to read. Also, keep in mind that these two issues were scripted by Claremont over Len Wein's plots, so he didn't even have full control of the writing at this point. It was more of the germ of the idea than a sales strategy that really played out, because for instance, there weren't going to be a lot of Soviet readers prompted by Colossus. He came across as quite the hothead in X-Men #64. I bought an Iron Man Epic Collection that has some of his early appearances that I haven't read yet. I do think at interesting What If concept would be what if Sunfire didn't quit, because I could see how the extra help with Nefaria plane might've saved Thunderbird's life. Nefaria also a Silver Age appearance, although that time his minions were a totally random assemblage (Plant Man, Porcupine, Unicorn, etc.). It is kind of random to see the Unholy Three expanded and reworked into the Ani-Men. Yeah, I agree it feels forced. Another sign of just how contrived it was is that after saying they wanted to be on their own, Angel and Iceman then end up on a new team in Champions #1, which came out the same month as X-Men #95. Also, Jean's departure didn't play out quite as Claremont intended, but maybe I'll save that for when she shows up again.
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Post by spoon on Mar 31, 2024 19:59:42 GMT -5
I re-read the Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast TPB reprinting Batman #417-420 by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. What I like is that the action sequences are done very well (props to Aparo), a fearsome foe is built up very quickly, and there's a great ending. Also, the Mike Zeck covers are excellent I'm not a fan of the plot-induced stupidity, like when people make themselves easy targets. On the other hand, that may be a function of how times change. I feel like there would be a pre-emptive cancellation of the fundraiser nowadays. Also, holy Hatch Act Batman! A presidential advisor at the campaign fundraiser. One of the characters asks why an Iranian operative would aiding a Soviet agent. Ditto. I guess it's because that was just a Starlin bugaboo. I loved "Ten Nights of the Beast" when it came out and bought each issue off of the newsagent shelves at the time. I agree completely about how skilkfully the threat was built up; KG Beast was a proper sh*t scary villain at the time. I have re-read this arc a few times, but probably not since the late 90s, so I've no idea how it would hold up now. But back in 1988, I felt that this was a really outstanding Batman storyline. It holds up reasonably well. It just faces the paradox, if that's the right word, that the grittier and more framed in reality a story is, the more nitpicky I am about whether aspects of the story are realistic.
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Post by spoon on Mar 31, 2024 14:27:17 GMT -5
I re-read the Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast TPB reprinting Batman #417-420 by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. What I like is that the action sequences are done very well (props to Aparo), a fearsome foe is built up very quickly, and there's a great ending. Also, the Mike Zeck covers are excellent I'm not a fan of the plot-induced stupidity, like when people make themselves easy targets. On the other hand, that may be a function of how times change. I feel like there would be a pre-emptive cancellation of the fundraiser nowadays. Also, holy Hatch Act Batman! A presidential advisor at the campaign fundraiser. One of the characters asks why an Iranian operative would aiding a Soviet agent. Ditto. I guess it's because that was just a Starlin bugaboo.
I'm going to have to read Bane stories sometime to see how much the character owes to KG Beast from this arc and the Bonecrusher character from Detective Comics #598-600.
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