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Post by tingramretro on Mar 18, 2019 5:36:14 GMT -5
Kevin O’Neill draws the most nightmare inducing monsters ever. There I said it. DC actually stopped employing Kev because someone in editorial considered his art style "offensive". He found that amusing. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 18, 2019 5:32:34 GMT -5
I believe that I had this two parter as one of my greatest saga entries a few years back , so I have to disagree with you. First of all , this is an Imaginary story as stated in the beginning, so anything goes. Second, in this tale the stakes are amped up because the driving force, Mxyzptlk, is inducing the formerly harmless adversaries to act in a more violent nature. As for Luthor and Braniac, they were always striving to kill Superman. I wouldn't call it a Grim and Gritty entry by Moore, just a playing for keeps and bored villain that wanted to turn events into a massacre. The story is spurred on by the knowledge from historians that this was Superman's last stand. As you can see , the Legion of Super Villains came back to join in on a "sure thing." The twist that Mxyzptlk is the villain behind it all is good writing, if it was Luthor behind it, I imagine Moore would have been accused of lazy writing. Lastly, his abandoning his role as Superman was the result of a deeply held code against killing. There would have been more backlash if he killed and just shrugged his shoulders afterwards and went on with his life. He hardly is leaving earth to the Wolves with all the heroes that are still there to protect it. Also, don't forget that some of those major threats were eliminated in this showdown. I will reiterate, it was an Imaginary story as a send off to the greatest superhero of all that was a few months away from a total reboot.  Ok. So. Yeah, I agree this is really good. But.. It was really it's own thing. Moore, at least in American comics, was primarily a horror writer and this was 100% a horror story. It was the whole cast getting killed off one by one ala Friday the 13th or Halloween, complete with bizarre gross-out scenes like the Braninac/Luthor team-up. It was an extremely effective recasting of Superman through the lens of horror fiction with some great individual scenes that created a genuinely haunting sense of palpable tension. But it was a complete 180 from every other Superman story up to this point, which made it a less-than- effective coda. Also, since Cody mentioned it, I have to opine that Miracle Monday is the actual greatest Superman story of all time. Moore, "primarily a horror writer"? Uh...no. He's done horror, certainly; Neonomicon, parts of Swamp Thing...but it's far outweighed by his non horror work. And this certainly wasn't a horror story. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 18, 2019 5:29:58 GMT -5
My kids are re-watching Supergirl... and I must have missed this the last time around...  I guess the writers do at least a little research! They do quite a lot of research. The DC shows are full of stuff like this, tributes to past stories, little easter eggs only fans would notice... |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 14, 2019 11:31:21 GMT -5
Omega Men #29 “Brief Lives” (May 1985)
Creative Team: Alan Moore writing. Kevin O’ Neill, artist. The Story: An army of sentient insects descends upon a planet populated by stone giants whose metabolism runs so slowly that the insect civilization runs its entire course and collapses, before the giants even realize they have been invaded.  My Two Cents: Omega Men seems to be a sort of DC Guardians of the Galaxy alien super-team. They guard the Vega system, and this is just a “Tales of Vega” back-up feature. As with the Mogo story, this four page vignette is just a brief (heh) look at the possibility of truly alien aliens who have little hope of even being aware of each other’s existence, let alone interacting, even in warfare. Moore reused the story nugget of “beings on vastly different timescales” with his description of The Flash in Swamp Thing #24 as “a man who moves so fast that his life is an endless gallery of statues.” Grant Morrison has several plots involving this feature as well, including "The World" in New X-Men, Earth-Q in All-Star Superman, the junkyard in The Filth, and the rescue of The Spectre in JLA. This story was actually in #26, not #29. Moore also wrote the back-up in #27. He's not in #29 or #30 at all. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 11, 2019 6:08:23 GMT -5
Well, needless to say I don't see it that way. It was 1980's Alan Moore who wrote Skizz, which I still consider one of the most uplifting, life affirming series' ever published in 2000 AD, and The Ballad of Halo Jones, which is wonderful. I think you're viewing him just from the perspective of his superhero stuff, which is a mistake. Also, while I've heard many people interpret what Joker did to Babs and her dad in The Killing Joke, it's an assumption that's always baffled me; it's not even implied in the story, let alone shown, and Moore himself has in the past seemed bemused by the assumption; as far as he's concerned, it seems, Joker simply shot Babs and humiliated Jim. Moore has said in the past that he doesn't consider Joker to be a sexual being at all.
Of course, it may well be that your views are being coloured by your love for the Silver Age stuff, which admittedly Moore seems at times to delight in showing up as absurd. As a child of the 70's, and not an American, I don't have that emotional connection to the Silver Age Superman mythos. I just always found it a bit daft.
Not sure what I'm missing here - what's not implied/shown in the story? The sexual assault? He shoots her, takes off her clothes, and takes photos of her naked, bloody body (I can't believe I'm talking about a Batman comic book here) and then shows those photos to her father who he's also stripped naked. There's no reading between the lines - it's right there. Moore doesn't have to treat the Silver Age as sacrosanct or serious or not point out its flaws or its stupidity - much as I love a lot of that period, there's much I have to struggle to get through if I read it at all (Batman and Robin making stupid jokes while fighting The Eraser, for example) or simply hate about it myself (that period's treatment of women - see; Lois Lane) - it's just that he doesn't move beyond doing anything else. I can't blame anyone for thinking its "a bit daft" (I'm certainly not going to defend Superman dancing The Krypton Crawl or putting a disguise on a fish to protect his secret identity from Lois Lane for the thousandth time) but if you're writing an homage to The Silver Age Superman, it helps to not equate 'homage' with 'mocking'. I'm not familiar with most of his 2000AD stuff so you may be 100% right about it being what it is. I suppose I should have said "I'm no fan of most of Alan Moore's American superhero work" instead. Taking someone's clothes off is not, in itself, sexual assault. There's no indication that Joker actually sexually molests anyone. And I don't think Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow was intended as an actual homage.
Most of Moore's early work was done for three separate British based publishers (IPC, Quality and Marvel UK) between 1981 and 1984, and as far as I'm concerned, that (along with Swamp Thing and Watchmen, and the later continuations of Marvelman/Miracleman at Eclipse and V for Vendetta at DC) was his golden period. I get the impression Moore himself is no fan of most of the mainstream superhero stuff he did; he certainly has little fondness for The Killing Joke, which he did only because he was asked to, and which only endd up being as extreme as it was because he assumed it would not be considered to be in continuity. He simply wasn't interested in writing traditional superhero stories. A lot of the more prominent British wriers aren't, which is probably why people lie Pat Mills and John Wagner, despite being big names over here, have never really cracked the US market, or even tried to. Superheroes are really more of an American thing.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 11, 2019 4:04:01 GMT -5
I'm not quite sure why you consider his mainstream DC stuff "mean spirited", but I did enjoy his work on DC characters in the Egmont annuals. Not all of it - I quite like his Clayface IV tale in Batman Annual 11, for instance - but "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Ugh. Bizarro going on a killing spree? Toyman and Prankster torturing Pete Ross to death? Mxyzptlk promising 3000 years (or whatever it was) of sadism? Jimmy Olsen - DEAD! Lana Lang - DEAD! Krypto - DEAD! Superman's little coda at the end renouncing who he used to be? Really brings a tear to the eye. And this was supposed to be Superman's big send off? I guess the wink at the end was meant to cancel out the whole "Superman was nothing but a big blowhard who thought the world couldn't get along without him" bit but bringing all this wonderful Silver Age magic back just to soak it in blood isn't really bringing it back. "Killing Joke"? The Joker blows a hole through Batgirl's spine and sexually assaults her and her father. Even when he wrote Supreme, Moore seemed to be taking quite a bit of his inspiration from all those Silver Age tales which if viewed through a modern lens, would make Superman look like a creepy, emotionally stunted man-child unable to have normal relationships with regular people. I can't really fault Moore for this since "how would all these conventions look in the real world" is a big component of his writing style and not without merit to a point, but the fact that Moore is clearly familiar with Superman's history but chose to reference only the "Superman doesn't know how to go on a date with Lois without resorting to some sort of deception" stuff and not the "Superman is a noble, selfless individual who we should admire for his principles" stuff rubbed me the wrong way, though I admit that the series does still have its charms. I'm not denying his talent ("genius" is a fair description, in fact) but for all his skills - he's poignant, profound, insightful, intelligent - he seems either incapable or uninterested in using superheroes to create something uplifting or inspiring or optimistic. Superman realises that he was naïve to think the world needed him? Batman and Joker share a laugh after the latter cripples Barbara Gordon? This, Moore can manage. Superman needs to restore a little girl's faith in humanity when an accident destroys her sight? Superman is dying from kryptonite poisoning but devotes himself to a series of good deeds before he dies? Moore would be completely out of his element even if it occurred to him to write something along these lines. EDITED TO ADD:I should say "1980's/90s Moore would be completely out of his element even if..." since his work on Top Ten proved that Moore can write inspiring and touching heroes. That Alan Moore I love - it's the earlier Alan Moore that I take issue with. Well, needless to say I don't see it that way. It was 1980's Alan Moore who wrote Skizz, which I still consider one of the most uplifting, life affirming series' ever published in 2000 AD, and The Ballad of Halo Jones, which is wonderful. I think you're viewing him just from the perspective of his superhero stuff, which is a mistake. Also, while I've heard many people interpret what Joker did to Babs and her dad in The Killing Joke, it's an assumption that's always baffled me; it's not even implied in the story, let alone shown, and Moore himself has in the past seemed bemused by the assumption; as far as he's concerned, it seems, Joker simply shot Babs and humiliated Jim. Moore has said in the past that he doesn't consider Joker to be a sexual being at all.
Of course, it may well be that your views are being coloured by your love for the Silver Age stuff, which admittedly Moore seems at times to delight in showing up as absurd. As a child of the 70's, and not an American, I don't have that emotional connection to the Silver Age Superman mythos. I just always found it a bit daft.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 9, 2019 20:20:23 GMT -5
Though I'm no fan of most of Alan Moore's superhero work, it might be of interest to some of you to learn (or be reminded) that he wrote two short Superman pieces in the UK in 1984 and 1985 which, I don't believe, have ever been reprinted in North America. Interestingly, my reservations about the stuff he was putting out at roughly the same time in the States ("Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", "The Killing Joke") don't apply to the material he was producing in the UK which are actually fun, charming, and embrace the source material in ways his darker, more mean spirited stuff over here didn't quite manage while still retaining the high level of intelligence his stories are known for. forgottenawesome.blogspot.com/2017/07/moores-earliest-superman-stories-part-1.htmlHe also wrote a Batman story over there for the 1985 Batman annual entitled 'The Gun' but I haven't found a transcript of that one yet. I'm not quite sure why you consider his mainstream DC stuff "mean spirited", but I did enjoy his work on DC characters in the Egmont annuals. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 9, 2019 20:15:35 GMT -5
Motormouth and Killpower were a part of Marvel UK's attempt to break into the US market in the early 90's, which to me was their least memorable era. Most of their better material came out in the early eighties. I've never forgiven the 90's MUK crew for killing off Death's Head and replacing him with the tedious Death's Head II. I have somewhere a Killpower issue signed by Gary Frank when he was in Italy for Lucca Comics. A nice fellow!  I believe they published here the paperback with the early stories of Captain Britain by Moore and Davis... Googling... Yes they did!  Those weren't really "the early stories". The character had been around for five years by then. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 4, 2019 3:35:36 GMT -5
I've just read the Wikipedia page about Marvel UK and it was fascinating. I remember they published in Italy some titles of the imprint in 90s and I believe (it was more than 20 years ago!) that I quite liked Motormouth & Killpower... Motormouth and Killpower were a part of Marvel UK's attempt to break into the US market in the early 90's, which to me was their least memorable era. Most of their better material came out in the early eighties. I've never forgiven the 90's MUK crew for killing off Death's Head and replacing him with the tedious Death's Head II. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 4, 2019 3:31:18 GMT -5
Marvel UK did publish one other original Spidey story, in Secret Wars #25 in December 1985. It was written by Jim Shooter, and drawn by Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer. Spidey visited Britain again and fought a Skrull on the set of kids TV show The Wide Awake Club. Lol...that sounds amazing. Hopefully Spidey defeated the Skrull, made out with Michaela Strachan (who was a bit of a hottie back in the day), and Timmy Mallet was killed by a flying chunk of masonry. Spider-Man saves the day, gets the girl and makes Saturday morning kids' TV bearable again in one fell swoop. Sadly not. Timmy lived to annoy another day. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 1, 2019 3:45:27 GMT -5
I...uh... could be wrong? I thought that America didn't quite produce enough material to fill the British Spider-Man weekly for a short while. My half-remembered source on this is Back Issue Magazine # 83, but I can't find my copy. This is essentially right, I believe, Repti, -- certainly that was the case for the UK exclusive Star Wars stories that appeared over here. However, I don't think there were all that many original UK Spidey comics. I think it was also something to do with Marvel UK being a bit nervous about the new black Spider-Man costume, so that when he came back from Secret Wars in the U.S. they printed some original stories over here where he was still in the red and blues. That's as I understand it, anyway, but really, tingramretro is your man. He doesn't post much here anymore, but there's no other member here who knows more about British comics than him. I'm sure he can give us the low down. EDIT: I see chaykinstevens kinda got there before me. That'll teach me to not read to the end of the thread before posting. Marvel UK did publish one other original Spidey story, in Secret Wars #25 in December 1985. It was written by Jim Shooter, and drawn by Barry Kitson and Mark Farmer. Spidey visited Britain again and fought a Skrull on the set of kids TV show The Wide Awake Club. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 10, 2019 18:20:56 GMT -5
Veteran British comics artist Ron Smith died today, aged 94. His career in comics spanned more than fifty years, beginning in 1949, though thdese days he's probably best known for his work on Judge Dredd, notably on epic storylines such as The Day the Law Died and The Judge Child. A sad loss to the industry.
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 8, 2019 3:45:57 GMT -5
New trailer out, and I'm still just not feeling it - this just isn't how I imagine the character sounding It's pretty much how she's been portrayed in the comics in recent years. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 7, 2019 3:46:07 GMT -5
I have no idea what Books-A-Millions is, or was. It's a big box book retailer along the lines of Barnes and Nobles, the kind of store whose existence Amazon severely threatens. The one I visited is right next to a Toys-R-Us that just closed, and apparently Books-A-Million has decided to make more room for toys themselves in response, by downsizing their comic book offerings. I ewas actually not aware of Barnes and Nobles either. Apparently, we have them in Britain (I've just checked) but I've never seen one. I'm guessing they're like Waterstones. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 6, 2019 18:53:16 GMT -5
I have never understood why any of these people were considered funny. Maybe it's just an American thing.
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