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Post by tingramretro on Jan 6, 2019 18:50:23 GMT -5
I have no idea what Books-A-Millions is, or was.
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 6, 2019 7:01:56 GMT -5
Hmmm.... IS Tennant popular in England? Maybe he's just the guy that made the Doctor cool again in the US, but you Brits were just waiting for the next regeneration? No, he is curiously popular here. I think it may just be that, thirteen episodes of Eccleston aside, he was the first Doctor of a new generation of fans who didn't remember the original show and for whom, therefore, his era defined what the series should be. That assumption, and that huge gap between old and new series', has created a schism in fandom which I think will always be there, now. A lot of younger fans seem to see the pre-2005 stuff as a different show, irrelevant to them, while a number of hardore older fans see the new series as a dumbed down reboot. Those who actually see the whole thing as one show and enjoy a lot of both eras are forever caught in the middle. And then, of course, you have sub factions like the new series fans for whom the show as it was intended to be began in 2005 and ended with the departure of David Tennant and Russell T Davies, or those who rode out that stylistic change but couldn't accept Peter Capaldi because he was "too old", just as among the older contingent there are still some who were fans in the '70's but hated John Nathan-Turner's tenure as producer and therefore write off everything after Tom Baker. We have always been a somewhat fractured fan base, the new series has just made that more apparent.
Incidentally, "England" and "Britain" aren't interchangeable. Refer to England when you mean Britain and you just end up being lambasted by the Scots and the Welsh.
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 5, 2019 16:53:27 GMT -5
That's easy.. Tennant played it as if he was a super hero.. and people love super heroes (As evidenced by the popularity of the movies). Also, Rose. Rose is really the star. Superheroes were never traditionally that big in Britain, though. And as for Rose...that self centred, obnoxious chav...God, I hated her... |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 5, 2019 15:29:35 GMT -5
Also, maybe the constant renumbering doesn't help. *See Avengers #1. No, not the one from last year, nor the year before that, but from 2016. **See Wolverine #1. Which one? Erm, not sure. Which is why Marvel now have both the new numbering and the original numbering on the covers. To avoid that kind of confusion and give a sense of continuity. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 5, 2019 6:44:27 GMT -5
The only minor continuity conflict I noticed in any of those books was that Captain Britain was still sporting a beard (as he has been for a couple of years now) in Avengers but was shown as clean shaven in a cameo in Uncanny X-Men. But I guess the man is entitled to change his look occasionally... Do they mention (or not) that Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne are dating in Avengers? (That's the sort of thing that often gets missed these days).. or is Wasp not really in the book right now? I read last for No Surrender. Umm...I think you may have missed a few developments. Janet is not on the current team, no, not on any kind of regular basis, though she did resurface in the most recent issue on some kind of undercover mission. The current Avengers book isn't really focused on the members private lives. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 4, 2019 11:07:46 GMT -5
That's good.. maybe someone at Marvel has decided to edit again  The last few time recent books have had that sort of connect that I've noticed, they've conflicted. The only minor continuity conflict I noticed in any of those books was that Captain Britain was still sporting a beard (as he has been for a couple of years now) in Avengers but was shown as clean shaven in a cameo in Uncanny X-Men. But I guess the man is entitled to change his look occasionally... |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 4, 2019 10:32:05 GMT -5
I don't see that being more true now than it was historically. Chris Claremont, Steve Englehart, and Jim Starlin definitely had their own little universes... really all the most creative writers did. I was part of a blog crossover project on the Steve Gerber superhero universe, ferinstance. (I concede that the hackier Gerry Conway level writers mostly avoided this. In my view they often used continuity as a crutch, leaching off the concepts of the top tier writers.) I suspect the answers are (A) Cross-pollination is saved for the mega-crossovers- if you like this sort of cross-polination you have to buy SecretT UltrA CrisiS* - and (B) the stories are longer. A one off where Daredevil fights the Leader might be fun in 1976 but now that would be six months away from Daredevil's villains with a character that the writer and editor can't develop at all because he "belongs" to the Hulk offices, and that's six months away from Daredevil's main cast of villains. I definitely do miss the days where everyone fought the Hulk within their first year, though.  * Which is another reason I don't see shared universes being less important now - for 3 or 4 months of the year a substantial number of Marvel comics are telling the same story... and have the exact. same. %^$& plot. If you wanna argue that shared universes concept was implemented better 20-30-40 years ago I am 100% with you, but I don't think inter title continuity is any less prevalent or important in 2018. They just do it worse differently. I agree that there are more events, for sure. I'm talking about the little things... Having the Avengers call the FF for info about something, and having Reed mention whatever is going on in their book... costumes being right.. minor characters developing correctly, that kinda thing. I HATE when there's a world shattering crisis in, say, X-Men, and they don't mention why the Avengers aren't helping, or vise versa. They quite often do mention it, though. Recent issues of Uncanny X-Men featured a global crisis, and they showed various heroes around the world responding to outlying elements of it while the X-Men were working out what was going on. Likewise, the latest issue of Avengers included T'Challa calling a meeting of various international heroes to discuss how the Avengers' reorganization affected the world. And last month's FF guest starred everyone from Luke Cage to Iceman. |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 4, 2019 8:53:30 GMT -5
There is continuity, you're right, but it feels like continuity for the sake of whatever the biggest event is right now. Not that that's a bad thing, but that's what it appears to be, e.g. "Let's get every title on board for Secret Empire. Whereas in the "old days", it felt more interconnected without the need for big events. Kraven could show up and hunt the Beast. Cap could cross paths with Electro. Iron Man could be the one that happens to show up to deal with Rhino. Anything could happen! Nowadays, it feels like the only time "cross-pollination" can be allowed to happen is if there's a big event on. There's a place for that, but I miss the days of randomness, where Daredevil would come across Vulture, or Joker just happened to be visiting Metropolis. It still happens. It may be less common than it used to, but it still happens. The 2017 Star Lord series, for instance, at one point saw Peter Quill team up with the Shocker to save Diamondhead, IIRC... |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 4, 2019 8:41:57 GMT -5
I've been catching up on some of the recent stuff I picked up, I've caught up with all 6 issues of all 4 titles and the 2 holiday specials of the Wal Mart DC Giants. The Justice League Giants have a new Wonder Woman lead, and reprints the new52 Aquaman, Flash and Justice League books. The Teen Titans Giants have a new Teen Titans lead, and reprints the Geoff Johns Teen Titans series, the Rebirth Super Sons title and Sideways form the New Age of DC Heroes. The Batman Giant has a new Batman lead, reprints the Hush storyline from Batman and the new52 Nightwing and Harley Quinn titles. The Superman Giant has a new Superman lead, reprints the Batman/Superman book form the early 2000s, reprints the early 2000s Geoff Johns GreenLantern title and The Terrifics from the New Age of DC Heroes. I have been also been catching up with the new Sandman Universe titles, having read the Sandman Universe Special and issues 1-3 of The Dreaming and House of Whispers. I still have Lucifer and Books of Magic to catch up on. I am really digging the 2 titles I have read so far. -M I'm feading all the Sandman Universe books aside from Lucifer, and thoroughly enjoying them, but I'm still baffled as to why tey seem to have rebooted Tim Hunter but left the continuity of The Dreaming intact... |
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Post by tingramretro on Jan 4, 2019 4:25:52 GMT -5
Do you think that Tennant has cast as large a shadow over the Current show as Tom Baker did over the Classic Show? (ie the most popular Doctor and the one all other Doctors following [or even preceded] are compared to, unfairly or not?) Yes, I do, and I don't understand why. He was the least Doctor-ish of all of them, his portrayal was totally unlike any of the classic Doctors and to me, he mostly just seemed to be playing it as a generic action hero/romantic lead, which is not who the Doctor is! What was the appeal of him? I just don't get it. |
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Post by tingramretro on Dec 31, 2018 8:51:20 GMT -5
I think that's another factor of the fact that Marvel and DC aren't really shared universes anymore... every writer essentially has their own pocket universe that only resemble each other incidently. That isn't true. There's currently a lot of cross-title continuity in DC books, notably because of the events in Doomsday Clock and Heroes in Crisis, which have been referenced in Action, Green Arrow, Flash, Superman and Titans, the shooting of Nightwing in Detective which has made waves everywhere, and the events of the recent Metal series. I'm currently reading far less Marvel, admittedly, but even there, there seems to be continuity between various titles I do read. |
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Post by tingramretro on Dec 27, 2018 3:52:18 GMT -5
The cover of #94 might be my favorite Golden art ever. It is probably one of the best covers in the entire series. |
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Post by tingramretro on Dec 24, 2018 7:41:27 GMT -5
I liked Commando comics a fair bit back as a kid in the early 80s. I also liked Battle Picture Weekly, although "Charley's War" used to bore me rigid back then. These days, my tastes have done a complete about face and I think "Charley's War" is one of the best British comic strips of all time. Certainly it's the best war comic ever produced in any country ever, as far as I'm concerned. I still have a small collection of, I dunno, maybe a dozen or so issues of Commando left over from my childhood. Like you @taxidriver1980 , I never bought it regularly (my comic buying funds usually went on Star Wars Weekly, 2000 AD, or various Marvel superhero reprints) and I definitely gravitated towards the Air Force type stories when I did -- either RAF or American 8th Air Force stories. The artwork in these comics was mostly excellent, but, although I enjoyed the stories a lot back in the day, re-reading them nowadays as an adult is painful; they're not exactly great literature. I also bought the odd issue of the similarly sized, somewhat short-lived sci-fi themed companion comic Starblazer, remember that? As for why or how the title has managed to survive, I think it must be because of nostalgia among those of us who grew up reading it. I really can't imagine that many young kids today are buying it. Also, it's smaller size and the black and white interiors must keep production costs down, I suppose. What keeps production costs down is that of the eight issues published every month (!), four are always reprints. But nevertheless, Commando is popular, and apparently not just with older readers. It's also worth noting that when they began offering digital subscriptions, subscriptions to the paper and ink version immediately almost tripled! |
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Post by tingramretro on Dec 11, 2018 13:28:37 GMT -5
Chinball needs to really fu...I mean buck up. Season 11 ended on an unimpressive note. No one really cares about Tzim-Sha...he's a complete dud. Cannot compare to the Daleks, Cybermen or The Weeping Angels. I think back to Army of Ghosts and Doomday; The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. THOSE were season finales. Please give Jodie something better to work with in Season 12. Other than 'Demons of The Punjab' and a couple of other episodes, my attention is beginning to wane. Sorry, absolutely hated pretty much the entire David Tennant era, it just wasn't Doctor Who, to me. I was incredibly relieved when Moffat took over and restored the show to its former glory. I do agree about the latest series, though. |
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Post by tingramretro on Dec 10, 2018 7:20:40 GMT -5
Well Whitaker is confirmed to return for the next season (as well as all the companions) but the new season won't hit until early 2020. -M The BBC are advertising the upcoming New Year's Day special as "the only episode for 2019", so it appears there'll be no Christmas Special next year, either. I think Chris Chibnall must see this as a part-time job. |
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The last few time recent books have had that sort of connect that I've noticed, they've conflicted.
