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Post by tingramretro on Mar 26, 2017 1:43:59 GMT -5
Serious question, as I don't have a particular view from this side of the Atlantic - how much of the military spending is because America wants to have a military that is overwhelmingly bigger than the next N countries combined (where N is 7, I think), and how much is it a way to massage unemployment numbers? From my Brit point of view, the US military spending, and the overall size of the military, seems to be insanely large US military spending is heavily influenced by how the defense industry has rigged the system. They spread weapons production across as much of the 50 states as possible, thereby ensuring that no one wants to really make cuts, for fear of plant closures. Also, the US is the largest exporter of arms. You can blame WW2. A lot of people made a lot of money and they wanted it to keep coming. Even Eisenhower, a 5 star general, warned of the power of the defense industry. Their patronage ensures that the US keeps coming up with boogeymen to fight. In terms of unemployment, that was a factor when Reagan took office, in so much as it was the first time the military was included in employment statistics, which led toa massive rise in employment numbers. The Administration crowed about it but neglected to disclose that they had changed the computation of the figures. The whole thing is systematic and factors into other areas, as well. One of the provisions of No Child Left Behind is that schools are foced to accept military recruiters on campus (this is at the highschool level) and the parents carry the burden to deny the recruiters access to their children. The schools can't stop it. I went to college on an NROTC scholarship; but, I did it with my eyes open, without talking to recruiters. Those guys make used car salesmen look honest. It is a duty that most military personnel avoid at all costs, as they have quotas and their fitness reports depend on hitting those quotas. they fill the kids with so much fantasy that it is criminal. I've talked to several past employees who talked with recruiters and gave them several reality checks. Some still joined; but, they did it with a clearer picture of military life and responsibility. I'm sorry, but that is absolutely outrageous, just shocking. That practice should be criminalized. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 26, 2017 1:40:18 GMT -5
Marvel certainly wouldn't have been able to reprint any of the material featuring the Warpsmiths or Big Ben wihout the permission of those characters' respective owners. In fact, as I understand it, the way Warrior was set up meant that all the creators owned the rights to their own work in perpetuity, so they'd have needed permission from both Moore and Leach to reprint anything anyway, although I gather Moore basically wasn't interested and just said they could do what they wanted with it so long as a) they took his name off it and b) they gave any royalties due to him to Mick Anglo and his family instead. Kimota: the Miracleman Companion by George Khoury delves a lot deeper into the legal situation as it stood prior to Marvel's acquisition of the material, and is a fascinating read. On a rather more biased note, I'd also recommend issue #11 of Crikey! the magazine of British comics, which contains an interview on the subject with Dez Skinn, but that's mostly because I wrote it. I was going to get to Kimota and probably still will. Great reference book (as is the THUNDER Agents Companion). It has input from pretty much everyone, including Chuck Beckum, aka Chuck Austen. he had the dubious distinction of following Alan Davis and he wasn't ready, in my book. He gave it a good try, though. Unfortunately, I think Chuck Austen was out of his depth and the sudden shift from Davis's dynamic stye to Austen's perfectly serviceable but unremarkable art detracted a bit from the power of the script. Also, Mike Moran's missing two fingers suddenly regrew themselves... |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 16:22:03 GMT -5
Captain Britain #26 (Cont.)At this point, I'm really not sure this story is ever going to end! I remember thinking that at the time. Although it wasn't that many pages, it wasn't written for the short installment. The classic British comic writers knew that, even in continuing stories, the few pages you had had to be exciting enough for it to be a standalone comic. I think you've probably hit the nail on the head, here. It was a case of a writer used to the pace of full length American monthlies not knowing how to gauge the pace of British weekly anthologies with shorter page counts per story. Claremont, for all his faults, understood it. I don't think it came as easily to Friedrich or Leiber. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 14:25:34 GMT -5
Captain Britain #26 (April '77)The cover art done by John Buscema/Tom Palmer is action packed and I'm voting this is the best cover that I seen in this thread of your tingramretro ! It ain't bad, is it! |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 14:21:54 GMT -5
Captain Britain #26 (Cont.)
Apologies for the mid review break. Life happened.
Anyway: Captain America reveals to Fury how he and CB escaped the explosion at Braddock Manor by hiding in an old WWII bomb shelter (which clears that particular mystery up several issues after everyone had forgotten it) before the intrepid pair return to fighting the Skull's men. Meanwhile, we get a protracted fight scene between Captain Britain and the Skull which ends with the Skull falling from the clock tower and landing hard while Captain Britain is saved from a similar fate by a jetpack wearing Captain America. The clock strikes twelve but the bomb fails to explode, Hunter having successfully disarmed it at the last minute. Unfortunately, the Skull is not yet out for the count, and is reaching for his fallen teleportation gizmo...
At this point, I'm really not sure this story is ever going to end!
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 11:32:28 GMT -5
Captain Britain #26 (April '77)Script: Gary Friedrich/Larry Lieber Art: John Buscema/Tom Palmer "Hickory, Dickory...Death!"  Our story picks up back at Westminster with Captain Britain battling the Red Skull hand-to-hand on the hands of the great clock, as Lance Hunter (who the Captain at one point mistakenly refers to as "the Colonel") continues to try to defuse the Skull's germ bomb. The Skull attempts to teleport out but unfortunately drops his teleporter device and ends up dangling by his ankle in the Captain's grip, still screaming defiance. Meanwhile, that old crybaby Captain America is still lamenting the death of Nick Fury...at least until a couple of panels later when Fury wakes up and shoots the neo-Nazi who is about to shoot him in the back. to be continued after this brief intermission
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 10:50:15 GMT -5
Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor, would have been 97 today...if he hadn't died in 1987. A great actor, still much missed.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 10:18:17 GMT -5
Marvel certainly wouldn't have been able to reprint any of the material featuring the Warpsmiths or Big Ben wihout the permission of those characters' respective owners. In fact, as I understand it, the way Warrior was set up meant that all the creators owned the rights to their own work in perpetuity, so they'd have needed permission from both Moore and Leach to reprint anything anyway, although I gather Moore basically wasn't interested and just said they could do what they wanted with it so long as a) they took his name off it and b) they gave any royalties due to him to Mick Anglo and his family instead.
Kimota: the Miracleman Companion by George Khoury delves a lot deeper into the legal situation as it stood prior to Marvel's acquisition of the material, and is a fascinating read. On a rather more biased note, I'd also recommend issue #11 of Crikey! the magazine of British comics, which contains an interview on the subject with Dez Skinn, but that's mostly because I wrote it.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 9:24:55 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of Alan Moore and absolutely adore things like V for Vendetta, Miracleman, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and, of course, Watchmen, but there are still some fairly sizable gaps in his oeuvre that I have yet to read. I'm thinking specifically about his notable work for the Big Two, like his runs of Swamp Thing and Captain Britain (I already own and love "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and The Killing Joke). My question is whether you think that someone who loved the likes of V for Vendetta and From Hell would automatically love Moore's Swamp Thing and Captain Britain? And while we're on the subject, what about his non-Big Two stuff like Top 10, Promethea or Tom Strong? Or his more recent Cthulhu Mythos stories, The Courtyard, Neonomicon and Providence (I've been a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft for decades)? Lost Girls too has always fascinated me, but I'm unsure whether it would appeal to a reader who liked things such as From Hell or Watchmen? Any advice from those who are better read on Moore's works than I would be gratefully received. Thanks! If you enjoyed Marvelman/Miracleman and Watchmen, I'm fairly sure you'd enjoy his Captain Britain, I realize I'm a bit obsessive over it but I really think it's some of his best work, and one of the best things Marvel published in the eighties. Swamp Thing is harder to judge since it basically depends on how wide ranging your tastes are; it's very hard to categorize, but it's somewhere between a horror story and a gothic romance, certainly not a superhero book. Personally, I loved it, I think it's incredibly well written for the most part. Actually, if you're a Lovecraft fan...yeah, you should read it. Definitely. Neonomicon might well appeal, too. Lost Girls is a very different beast from Moore's other work, I think. It's well written, but it definitely requires an open minded view of sex. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 3:13:54 GMT -5
Just a side bar on Big ben, The Man With No Time for Crime! The character first appeared in the Warrior Summer Special (which is the 4th issue of Warrior).  He's pretty much a superhero version of John Steed, of the tv show, The Avengers. he has the same umbrella and Bowler hat that became synonymous with Steed. he operates out of a secret lair within the actual Big Ben clock, in Elizabeth Tower, at Westminster (aka The Houses of Parliament). He was created by Moore and Dez Skinn and Skinn wrote his adventures in Warrior, before handing him over to a young Grant Morrison. There, the reality is different than in Marvelman.  The stories that were published were delightfully tongue-in-cheek and one even spoofs The Prisoner. Sorry to be contradictory, but as I recall, Ben was created by Dez Skinn, the original concept predating Warrior. Moore used him, but I don't think he can be said to have created him. I believe Dez owns the rights to the character, or at least he did, just as Garry Leach owned the rights to the Warpsmiths. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 1:55:20 GMT -5
I don't want to get in a debate over healthcare again, but I just wanted to point out that the current American healthcare system doesn't resemble anything close to a free market. Even beyond large programs like Medicare and Medicaid and recent policies like the ACA, the healthcare industry is one of the most tightly controlled markets in the country. We haven't had a free market healthcare system since sometime before the Johnson presidency. I have no facts to back this up, but my theory is that the for-profit medical industry, specifically the insurance companies, have been squeezing all of us because they can.
It's theoretically a free market and all, but, most of us having insurance through our employer have to play by certain rules. With a single payer system, like Medicaid for all citizens, the government sets the rates and I assume health insurance companies would go out of business. Why FDR didn't go this direction decades ago is beyond me. This is what I can never understand. Why can't you just have a system like most of the civilized world, where the government provides healthcare paid for by taxes? It's so much simpler and fairer, and nobody gets left behind. |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 1:48:02 GMT -5
He deserves the ultimate blame. It was he who rejected the original resolution of the plot and other alternatives. And he with Michelenie came up with the worst possible choice. Layton and Perez only contributed incidental story elements, not the main ending. So Shooter was the cause of changing the original ending and aided and finally approved the travesty it became. If you're going to be a heavy-handed EIC then you take the criticisms as well as the accolades I can feel your hatred radiating off the page. I guess you can't be objective about Shooter. You've only just noticed?  |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 25, 2017 1:45:57 GMT -5
That surprises me. Avengers #177, the conclusion to the Korvac story, is an issue I actually keep a spare reading copy of because it's always been one of my favourite Marvel comics ever. No idea why. But I don't think Marvel have done "cosmic" as well since. A terrific conclusion of a strong arc. The overwhelming disadvantage they faced and still strove to fight against, I haven't seen anything to match that until Starlin and Infinity Gauntlet. Shooter's second run held some good moments aside from the Fall of Pym. Tigra's membership offered up a general outsider's view of the team and what it takes to be a member. Tigra's doubt over fulfilling such a potential was keenly felt in the Molecule Man story, which also had Steve finally learning Thor and Iron Man's secret identities. How can you not feel charged seeing Cap leading mere Tony Stark and mortal Don Blake into battle alongside the Silver Surfer? That was a great scene. And I loved the part where, with the threat defused, the Molecule Man still manages to get in a last little parting shot by sticking Stark in an "Iron Man leisure suit" because recreating his armour is too hard!  |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 24, 2017 16:11:59 GMT -5
And you are continuing to prove my point for me. This is what I meant about judging based on no information. Because this is not not what the story is saying. Marvel are not actually claiming that Cap was a lifetime Hydra agent-until a few months ago, when his personal history was rewritten by a villain using a Cosmic Cube, something which the characters are unaware of but which the readers have known since day one because we basically saw it happen. There is no retcon, all past stories are still pefectly valid from our POV, nobody is trying to tell the readership "Cap was actualy this all along", and it's fairly obvious it's a storyline with a definite ending in mind. But a horde of outraged readers who haven't actually read the book in years have picked up on a headline and decided "Marvel have retconned Cap! The bastards!" Despite the fact that, unlike DC, Marvel actually aren't known for doing that kind of thing. I was actually trying to avoid spoilering the story, but since it appears I'm the only one reading and enjoying it anyway, what the hell... That's actually the precise definition of a retcon, IMO... changing the past that we know happened and substituting something else. That's exactly what they did with Tony Stark during the Crossing (only the culprit was Time Travel rather than the Cosmic Cube). There's always an explanation, taht's what makes it a retcon and not a mistake. The nature of the business these days is such that no change is lasting... they have to protect the IP. All the more reason to disregard things you don't like. You're certainly allowed to like it, no one is saying otherwise. Clearly, someone's reading it, or it wouldn't be getting published. I was just commenting that it's exactly the sort of story that I disregard in my 'head canon' of a character. But this isn't a change that was ever even intended to be lasting, it's just a finite story, no different to the Nomad storyline in the 70s, the John Walker as Cap story in the eighties or the death of Cap story after Civil War! What's so wrong with that? |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 24, 2017 11:42:21 GMT -5
I sometimes think I'm the only person around here who still enjoys modern comics. I like Fables, Fairest, the first couple Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel series, the first couple Matt Fraction-written Hawkeye series, Saga, Chew, Aquaman, Doctor Strange, Moon Knight, and Batman '66. I used to like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Avengers, and Uncanny X-Men, up until about five years ago, at which point Marvel started doing everything in their power to ruin the characters I liked in the name of diversity and media attention and branding, all done to boost that stock price a couple of pennies per quarter so the Disney shareholders can feel good about their investment in Marvel's properties. I was actually excited about the first Sam Wilson as Cap series by Rick Remender, because I thought it was an interesting turn on the character. Having Sam, with a different perspective on what "America" needed from Captain America, carrying the shield should have been great, but it only lasted six issues, and then they turned the reins over to Nick Spencer. What Spencer has done is write one long love letter to liberal America, portraying anyone who is white, conservative, or business-oriented as evil and/or racist, taking what was an awesome concept about having a Captain America working for and understanding the needs of all Americans and turning it into nothing more than race-baiting "us against them" drivel. Fine. Whatever. I'm enjoying it, that's all I care about. What specifically are you enjoying about this storyline? I'm not being snarky, I'm genuinely interested in knowing, because I find it to be horrible, so hearing that someone else likes it makes me curious. My biggest complaint with it, outside of the fact that it is just dragging on and on with nothing ever actually happening so they can make the endgame this year's big summer event, is that it doesn't work as Marvel says it does. I'm expected to go back and look at every Cap story ever written and think that underneath every action, every sacrifice, every move Cap ever made, it was all because he was secretly an agent of Hydra? Now Marvel wants to say that knowing that doesn't invalidate those stories, it just adds depth to them, but that's the essence of a retcon, which is putting something there that wasn't there to begin with in order to make a current story make sense. They want us to to buy that the real reason Cap was opposing the Red Skull was because Cap was trying to take Hydra to its true potential and the Red Skull was perverting Hydra's vision, which apparently was that of repainting community centers, building playgrounds for children, and feeding and clothing the poor. Spencer is actually casting Hydra as the good guys, just trying to make the world better for everyone until that mean old Nazi Red Skull came along, which is just patently ridiculous. This story fails on so many levels, it isn't even funny. Except that they aren't doing that at all, are they? There is no need to look back at those past stories beacuse we already know that the only reason Cap's past has changed is because of an external influence, and that before that was done in the wake of the Pleasant Hill event, those stories unfolded exactly as we saw them do previously. Why are you assuming they didn't? I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding, here. This is not about rewriting the past from the point of view of the readers, only from the point of view of the characters, and it's obviously not a permanent change to the status quo. I'm simply enjoying it as a current, self contained story, not trying to work out what hypothetical effect such a change would have had on several decades worth of past stories, because while that is a fun mental exercise, it's pretty obvious that until Kobik changed the timeline, none of it would have applied. . |
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