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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 7, 2024 21:17:59 GMT -5
This weeks pick is Flash # 201The story is not spectacular , It's full of silly stereotypes that are inaccurate, but it's the first ( and maybe only) time there was a Puerto Rican character as an important part of the story. The lead character is named Paco, I've never met a Puerto Rican with the name Paco, and he's an up and coming Basketball star who loses the use of his legs because of an accident by the Flash. The events in the story are hokey , was Robert Kanigher a good writer? Any way ,it features nice art by Irv Novick and Murphy Anderson. The book has a backup with the Golden age Flash , which was equally hard to read. I still love the book. I've maybe only read the first 15/16 issues of Silver Age Flash (including the Showcase issues) and a good hunk of the Carey Bates era (who is by far is my favorite writer on the book). Been getting the itch to read some more Flash stuff, so I might try and circle back around to the stuff I've missed
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 6, 2024 18:52:57 GMT -5
I never thought Aquaman was lame. His stories have been pretty good and I actually prefer them over Namor. Of course Aparo art elevated any title. Those collections you read were awesome! I think it's more about having the right writers on the right characters (dang, that's a tongue twister!), Aquaman was kind of a bit bland in the beginning (kind of following a similar formula to the Martian Manhunter where was kind of a happy-go-lucky do-gooder in the same vein as Supes) but got better when Steve Skeates came on board. I never understood why Levitz was so damn insistent on making Arthur adhere to how he was in the Super-Friends cartoon (which, tbh, probably didn't help his public perception much). I think my favorite interpretation of the character is the Dan Abnett run, which I'm in the process of reading for the first time in years. Though I do enjoy David's tenure quite a bit
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 5, 2024 11:38:49 GMT -5
It’s a shame Twitter has become X. I don’t know why he is obsessed with the letter X, Twitter sounds better. And I'm honestly not joking about that
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 5, 2024 10:12:26 GMT -5
True. It was those types of storytelling methods that set them apart from DC. It would eventually make DC second because they refused to change their style. I think DC benefitted from Marvel's pressence more than they'd care to admit. Obviously Adam West Batman capitalized on what made Marvel popular (or what they thought made it popular), but many could tell that they didn't know what they were doing. I feel like DC going into the Bronze age were stronger overall than Marvel, even if Marvel was the market leader at the tine
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 5, 2024 9:14:20 GMT -5
I had a thought from the Thor review. Icctrombone mistakenly commented about Marvel overtaking DC in the Silver Age. As I said there, Marvel total sales overtook DC in the mid-70s and even then, outside of Spider-Man, DC had more top books. They did it with reprints mainly. Now this is not about who had better books. I would completely agree with Icct, that Marvel was superior. And Icct is far from alone in thinking Marvel outsold DC. So why they mistaken perception. I think Marvel attracted more avid readers and fans who stuck with the books longer, well into their teens and beyond. While DC was getting more the kids who had spare change to buy the comics that looked cool or had a character they liked. So while DC was outselling Marvel, Marvel had the more decoted fan base. Flash forward to the late 70s and 80s and the older readers are the ones who remember the Silver Age as the time with those great Marvel books. And their memory is they and their friends buying more Marvel. Sweeping generalization? Yes. But I think it is part of what lead to this misconception. There are very few DC books from the Silver Age that I'd willingly read outside of Flash and Metal Men, flash forward to the later half of the 60 and into the 70's and that changes. DC was taking a hard look at their books and altering them for the better, they still were cheerful and approachable (excluding Batman of course knatch), but felt much more grounded while still being fantastical, much like Marvel (who'd have thunk it?)
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 4, 2024 19:49:05 GMT -5
I read the Aquaman: The Death of a Prince HC reprinting stories from Adventure Comics #435-437, 441-455, and Aquaman #57-63. Aquaman starts here as a feature in pages of Adventure. Then, when Aquaman's eponymous series is revived, the plot thread goes in three directions. Arthur headlines his own book with a short-lived Mera back-up spinning out of events in the Aquaman feature. Meanwhile, in Adventure, Aqualad has his own short-lived series continuing his own plot thread. Most of the Aquaman stories are drawn by Jim Aparo, with a few at the beginning drawn by Mike Grell and a few at the end drawn by Don Newton. The Aparo art is the best by far. Although I like Newton as a Batman artist, he doesn't work as well here. I don't know if it's just that his comic work was still developing or that I like him better as inked by Alcala and other inkers from the Bat titles. The backups are drawn by artists including future editor Carl Potts and Juan Ortiz. For some reason, the Mera feature follows the misguided practice of having Vince Colletta ink features starring female characters (e.g., Dazzler). There are various writers including Steve Skeates, young Paul Levitz, and Gerry Conway, but David Michelinie probably writes the most stories. The stories are an odd mix of whimsical and gritty. The prince's death referred to here is Arthur Curry Jr., a.k.a. Aquababy. On the one hand, it takes away something that makes the series distinctive (a superhero as a parent). On the other hand, Aquababy hadn't been as big a part of the stories as he could've been, and the story plays out, particularly with regard to the relationship between Aquaman and Mera, in interesting ways. We get a good mix of Aquaman villains. Part of the unique mix of whimsical and serious in Aquaman is how Aparo makes villains like the Fisherman who in theory seem ridiculous come across as genuinely menacing presences. This book also includes the story that reveals that Black Manta is actually a black man. I was antsy at Michelinie writing this because things like the Falcon subplot he worked on in Avengers, in which he trashed the character in service of whatever agenda he had, does not give me great confidence in him writing black characters. Indeed, the story which includes Black Manta hiring black separatists as minions starts cringey, but it does end up as bad as I feared it could get. Earlier in the book, there's an issue (not written by Michelinie) with some interesting commentary on people collecting Confederate memorabilia. At one point, we get Kobra as a special guest villain and Batman as a special guest star. I get the impression that Kobra was a big deal in the 70s (a villain with his own title). I know of him mostly from an Outsiders arc. He's simultaneously seems very dangerous yet under-prepared for his evil schemes. Batman comes across several times as an angry, obsessed jerk, serving as a reminder that a lot of aspects of Batman that people imply are post-Crisis developments actually go back further. Some of the stories are pretty good (particularly the Aparo art), while others are forgettable, but overall the book is a good read. The Bronze Age Aquaman stories are great (with the exception of Levitz who seems intent on shoe-horning in Arthur's mental telepathy with fish into every issue), very happy that they were able to get collected and here's hoping they get a DC Finest collection if they actually don't decide to half-ass it and stop the line a few years down the road
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 4, 2024 13:09:14 GMT -5
We got a bunch of still carded Hot Wheels yesterday, spied this one and knew I had to have it. Only complaint is that it's more dark grey than matte black like how it is in Forever
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 4, 2024 8:46:44 GMT -5
It's kind of strange to me that both Ringu and Ju-On got Americanized remakes (and even sequels) further proving that us silly yanks can't stomach subtitles I recently rewatched Last Action Hero (1993) for the hundredth time, remember finding it (much like Hackers and The Last Dragon) on Starz or Encore at my Grandparent's house in my teens. Absolutely loved it then, still love it now. While I wouldn't call it a perfect movie, it does what it does very well and the comedy timing of "Arnold Brownswagger" is pretty damn good, though he tops himself in Jingle All The Way I didn't understand why The Last Action Hero did so poorly at the box office. It was by no means bad when compared to all the '80s action/comedy films in the same vein, and I got a good laugh out of the Hamlet scene. Well, it might have something to do with the fact that it came out the same week as Jurassic Park (according to wikipedia) Oh, the Hamlet scene is my absolute favorite and I'm so happy that they made a toy of it I also deeply love the running gag of John Practice (F. Murray Abraham) killing Mozart
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 4, 2024 8:20:19 GMT -5
Mail call. 2 separate auction wins results in my completing the 25 issue Simonson Orion run. I only needed 10, 13, 19 , but it was cheaper to buy the lot. The Final issue. As someone who wasn't particularly keen on the New Gods (outside of Mr Miracle and Forever People), how well does Simonson do with Orion? Is it anything like his Thor run?
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 4, 2024 8:18:32 GMT -5
I watched Ringu for the first yesterday, although I had seen its americanized version The Ring years ago. And surprise, surprise, I actually preferred the latter! The Japanese original is fine, naturally, but I found a few things somewhat disappointing. The fact that the husband had psychic abilities, for example, felt way too convenient; that the dreaded phone call ("seven days" or, here, "you saw it") could only be received in the B4 cabin was less creepy than in its ubiquitous American version; the well being half-emptied bucket by bucket in just a couple of hours struck me as physically impossible. But those are small potatoes. Where the remake did particularly well, I think, is in setting up the great red herring about the fundamentalist family unfairly treating their innocent daughter, just to reveal that they were right all along. I love having the carpet pulled from under my feet like that! Ringu, for its part, didn't have the dreadful "you should not have freed her" revelation but stopped at "well, finding the body wasn't enough". An efficient ending, to be sure, but the remake managed to ratchet it up a little. I think I'll try Ju-On next. I hadn't particularly liked The Grudge, despite the extremely spooky-looking ghost, so perhaps the original will do the trick It's kind of strange to me that both Ringu and Ju-On got Americanized remakes (and even sequels) further proving that us silly yanks can't stomach subtitles I recently rewatched Last Action Hero (1993) for the hundredth time, remember finding it (much like Hackers and The Last Dragon) on Starz or Encore at my Grandparent's house in my teens. Absolutely loved it then, still love it now. While I wouldn't call it a perfect movie, it does what it does very well and the comedy timing of "Arnold Brownswagger" is pretty damn good, though he tops himself in Jingle All The Way
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 3, 2024 14:09:38 GMT -5
Original Turok is a damn good read even today. Love the melding of native Americans and dinosaurs
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 3, 2024 9:46:22 GMT -5
Not sure which thread to post this in, but here is just a s good. On our Zoom meeting we discussed Gene Colan leaving Marvel. Here is an excerpt from the Comics Journal. Now we do know that Shooter was a pain in the ass to a lot of artists, but also the older artists had their way of working. We also know a lot of the new writers were assholes. The stories of how they treated Kirby alone are pretty grim. But what I want to do is actually look at the work Colan was doing before he left for DC. In 1979-1980 Colan was finishing up Tomb of Dracula, Howard the Duck, a run on Dr. Strange and a 5 issue return to Daredevil. I challenge anyone to look at those books and say Colan was "phoning it in". There might have been a clash of ideas or generations, but Gene's work in retrospect was first rate. As it was when he went to DC. And BTW, Sal Buscema had the same complaint about Shooter and the young writers telling him how to draw a story. It's kinda sad to see the "Marvel Method" deteriorate over time. And if the 79 to 80 timeline is accurate, I think Colan's work on Captain America #256 (which is honestly one of my favorite issues) and Captain America Annual #5 from 81 might have been one of his next to last jobs I truly loved Colan's style, especially in HTD. It kind of had this pulpy, almost noir quality to it that I think is far better appreciated in B&W than it is in color
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 2, 2024 18:52:30 GMT -5
Today my wife is going to Chile for 12 days on vacation. I will miss her but, Boy, am I going to watch 100 movies, read 1000 comics and eat 2000 pieces of chicken !!!Careful you don't get chicken grease all over those Liefeld comics you're reading, they might not be worth anything after that? Hope you enjoy your temporary bachelorhood indulging in those past times you love. -M He's probably also using all those Bloodshot comics he promised me as makeshift plates
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 2, 2024 7:37:54 GMT -5
The recycling of content irked me. So many Hogan tapes had Hogan/Andre from WM III. Fine, it was an iconic match, but as a kid, I was like, “Please, give me some Saturday Night’s Main Event content, or something - anything - that hasn’t yet been released on tape.” There was even a Bret Hart tape where *every* match had been featured on other tapes. Well, there's a sucker born every minute I suppose . I'm also rather tired of seeing the formation of the NWO at Bash At The Beach and the Montreal Screwjob that seemingly always has to be brought up on home video releases. Like I get it, it was a pivotal moment in history. It's the same with video gaming YouTubers making absolutely sure that you know that Super Mario Bros 2 was a localization of Doki Doki Panic
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 2, 2024 7:20:19 GMT -5
My friend, there are some things mankind was not meant to know, so we’d be best not thinking about the eerie powers that the urn contains, although seeing Kama once stole it, and melted it down to use as jewellery, perhaps it’s not too sinister. Also, there were so many Undertaker tapes and DVDs released, some of which duplicated content. Frustrating! Well, we did have that green gas come out of the urn and undertakers coffin at the Rumble... And yeah, I agree about the excess amount of Taker tapes and DVDs with the same content. We had like four come into work. Tombstone looked good though, it gives a narration, vingnettes, interviews, and highlights between the big matches. I think my favorite thing about it though was that it came with a small card tucked in the case that had a listing of all the upcoming pay-per-views for 05 and 06
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