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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 25, 2019 2:47:22 GMT -5
I'm not going to do a full review as it's not a real story in the traditional sense but I did enjoy History of the Marvel Universe #2. One thing that surprised me though was that they kept Doctor Strange's origin as happening in the late 60's, I guess magic could explain why he isn't ancient in the current period but it seemed a little weird that they didn't slide him further along the time line. Likewise they moved the fantastic four and Doctor Doom out of the 50's which is needed...but they only bumped them up to the 70's. Maybe they got stuck in the phantom zone and only escaped recently as other wise it would be strange that they were so young unless you hand wave it away with cosmic rays instead? Two without plausible explanations would be Frank Castle and Rhodey being active in Vietnam, I get that the period is important to the Punisher...but he's just a regular guy so magic or cosmic rays can't explain why he doesn't look like a 60 year old man in the current day and the same goes with Rhodey. I mean if you wanted them to be older than your average hero I would think the first Gulf War would be more realistic.
I couldn't be bothered to pick up History #2 (I found #1 to have great art, but the "story" presentation was just terrible. Comparing it to similar works where we're just going through a long timeline of things happening, History was basically "This happened. This happened. This happened" without any of the connective story tissue that better works did. Very disappointing from Waid. Also some weird skips in issue #1. We see the Elder Gods and the rise of the next gods, but we're just skipping over the Demigorge killing most of the Elder Gods. We have a short mention of Mephisto, but not how he, Satannish and the major demons were once a single entity and many many more. Don't have the first issue here).
Anyway, not the thing I wanted to talk about:
- Dr. Strange, there was always the part of Strange already being active for years by the time of his first appearance and that becoming a Master of the Mystical Arts would have taken him years as well, so keeping Strange's origins at least a decade before the other heroes always worked for me.
- Castle's origin just doesn't work with the Gulf War. The kind of war Vietnam was, is integral to the character. Likewise, transposing Steve Rogers from WWII to the Korean War for instance would just end up with a completely different character.
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 25, 2019 2:15:21 GMT -5
It just occurred to me that Gemma Chan would make a great Leiko Wu or Fah Lo Suee in the MoKF movie, but I suppose she'll be tied up now doing the Eternals.
She already doing two different characters (she was also Dr. Minerva in Captain Marvel), so why not a third?
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 20, 2019 9:06:49 GMT -5
It was Trimpe's own decision to start drawing like Liefeld.
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 19, 2019 2:20:29 GMT -5
The electric eel things comes back from time to time (usually just as the ability to absorb and release electricity). I know Namorita used it a couple of times back in New Warriors and Namor used it in Busiek's Defenders.
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 12, 2019 8:50:08 GMT -5
Has Iron Man ever taken on Kingpin? Either in a physical encounter (I bet that wouldn't last long) or perhaps in a corporate sense as Tony Stark? If not a battle (of any kind), has there ever been any kind of encounter between them?
Not a battle, but Fisk and Stark were co-owners of Damage Control in the original mini-series (Stark sold his share in the second, because he didn't want to be in business with Fisk).
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 31, 2019 5:18:19 GMT -5
I think I only read The Path by Sears (quite liked it) and I didn't notice the "polished chrome". Might be due to the inker/colourist though.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 29, 2019 8:08:13 GMT -5
I still contend that the story made " comic book " sense. The reader has been asked to suspend disbelief over crazier scenarios ( beings transmuting matter, resurrections , or even flying without a visible means of propulsion) but is asked to analyze someones another persons decision to go off with another being of fantastic power. Carol said she was going off with him, what were they supposed to do, chain her to the Avengers Manson ? As pointed out by profh0011 , you can't stop someone from doing something, even if it's a major mistake. Fantastic things like this story have been written since the beginning and ignored a few issues later, with no repercussions. Another writer might have restored her 5 issues later explaining that Marcus passed away from the aging machines effects and no one would have batted an eye. You might want to rephrase that. These are superhero comics; they are stopping people from doing things every 30 days.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 29, 2019 8:00:39 GMT -5
Asterix: like most European comics*, it will take a few issues to completely flesh out the concept and get to the really good comics (for that matter, I think the really good Valerian and Laureline comics are also a few issues in). I think around Cleopatra, the series becomes good and around The Roman Agent, it becomes really good. (And then takes a nosedive after Goscinny dies).
Keep in mind for Asterix: it requires a bit of foreknowledge of Roman history, French culture and European cultures to get all the jokes and subtext.
* For instance: Lucky Luke starts to get good around the Dalton Cousins and also nosedives after Goscinny dies. Spirou: Switches creative teams a lot, but the best stories are Franquin and for him around Pirates of Silence (though I think especially in Franquin's case, I see an improvement from issue to issue over the years).
I don't think this is actually a thing in just European comics, in many American comics I do think that it takes the creative teams often some time to find their voice for a character or for a couple of creative teams to finally develop a character into something unique/interesting. For many series, it also requires the creative team having set up a world, its characters and premise before introducing a twist/playing with the standard premise, but the twist does not work without the groundwork**.
If you want to try out a new comic series, I think it's very rare where I would actually recommend issue #1 as the one to try out. For instance, if my nephews ever wanted to read Batman, I would never give them a reprint of Bob Kane's work. Or a more recent example: the Image Comic Fairlady started recently and I quite like it so far. The premise is a series of standalone detective stories in a fantasy world. 4 issues out, but the first issue is a terrible first issue IMHO. It is a bit a somber story with the main character trying to find a missing girl, but spending most of the issue silent as she reads through the girl's diary. I would recommend somebody wanting to try out the series to start with the second issue: the main character is hired to investigate the death of man, who has been killed by a dragon, but nobody has seen dragons around for years. The second issue has a straight forward mystery, the main character is more active and you get more of the world she inhabits and her place in it.
Similar thing for manga, though there are a lot of manga where I like the original premise and once it gets going, it turns into a more standard story and I really like the first few chapters far more than the later.
**= For example, I heard that DC was planning a movie version of the Teen Titans: Judas Contract. A story I don't think will work well in a movie, because without getting to know the main characters first and their relationship with Terra, the betrayal will feel empty. Similar to all the Dark Phoenix movie adaptions: give Jean time to be her own person, before you throw in the Dark Phoenix.
Mmm.. ended up a bit more rambling than I intended. I hope I'm still making sense. Anyway the short version: the first issue may set up an interesting premise, but it rarely is the best story in a series. If you want to try something, especially in the field of European comics, where standalone stories are very common, you will get a more accurate impression if you pick up issue 8 or 12 or so.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 29, 2019 7:26:51 GMT -5
Hey the Politics thread is closed! At Marvel, I suppose Fu Manchu never really turned into a good guy... except that he’s been retconned away into a non-entity. Are the Yellow Claw and the Mandarin still around? What about M.o.d.o.k.? Baron Strucker? Madam Hydra? Bullseye? Granted, most A-list villains are eventually allowed to reveal more depth than their initial role as just some hero’s nemesis would require (Dr. Doom, Galactus, Loki and the like)... but some villains still appear irredeemable. Not all of them are interesting, alas.
I think most of those are still around, though Yellow Claw and Mandarin are both death last time I checked.
I haven't seen Strucker since Secret Warriors, but he probably was a part of Secret Empire.
M.O.D.O.K. was part of the West Coast version of the Masters of Evil recently (together with Madame Masque, Graviton, Satanna, Lady Bullseye and the Eel).
Madame Hydra: Back to calling herself Viper I believe, she has been around in recent years, usually involved with Hydra.
Bullseye: was paralyzed for a while, but I think I saw him in a recent comic back as an assassin for hire.
But I'm joining in Confessor in the "define what is a true villain"-group.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 27, 2019 15:03:19 GMT -5
I loved episode 3 of season 3: {Spoiler: Click to show}We get to meet David's parents: Charles and Gabrielle (also proto-Cerebro). The big improvement over the original X-Men story: Charles is a patient, like Gaby. Comic Charles starting a romantic relationship with his patient always was a terrible decision, but two patients falling in love. {Spoiler: Click to show}We get to meet David's parents: Charles and Gabrielle (also proto-Cerebro). The big improvement over the original X-Men story: Charles is a patient, like Gaby. Comic Charles starting a romantic relationship with his patient always was a terrible decision, but two patients falling in love.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 27, 2019 14:59:27 GMT -5
The Rapier appeared in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #2. Did the character ever return? He doesn't appear to even have a Wikipedia page. He was in Captain America 319/320 (part of the Scourge storyline, so you can guess how that worked out for him).
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 23, 2019 7:53:30 GMT -5
I think Valerian is all about opening up perspectives like good sf can. There are a lot of great non-English comics like this to be discovered, yay! Speaking of which, has anyone read The Black Moon Chronicles? I’m just curious how it compared to Valerian, but I don’t want to change the subject either. However, @beccabear is so right on. I’ve been around the block too many times that I feel qualified in saying yas, queen!
I just answered a similar question in the European comics thread: Black Moon Chronicles is a guilty pleasure, but writingwise it's nowhere close to Valerian. If you known Requiem Vampire Knight, it's very similar to do that: very violent, quite a bit of sex, no real character development, lots of dark humor.
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 23, 2019 4:26:07 GMT -5
I more familiar with series that got translated (especially by NBM, Heavy Metal or Catalan). It appears to have started after most of the references I had to European comics or that arrived here. For fantasy series, I am more familiar with things like Thorgal and The Mercenary. Now that I look, I see that Chroniques has been translated as The Black Moon Chronicles. Searching for images of that BD, I came across something completely different that looks interesting: Les Éternels, by Yann and Meynet: It seems to be a crime or espionage series about diamond smuggling. I like the Modesty Blaise vibe of the mini-skirted heroine.
That series is always fun to discuss on comic boards because as soon as you mention "The Eternals" as a comic book, most people think of another comic. It's indeed a crime/investigation series on the diamond trade/smuggling/theft. Been a while, but I don't think they address the whole blood-diamond thing though. The main character is the twin sister of an agent for the diamond trading families. Her sister dies and she has to take her place.
Chronicles of the Black Moon: it's basically the writers D&D campaign turned into a comic book. The writing is not exactly brilliant (every character is murderous and selfish and we go pretty rapidly through the entire story. There is not much character development). The main draw is the artwork by Ledroit and later Pontet and a certain dark humor to it..
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 11, 2019 16:11:45 GMT -5
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 11, 2019 16:08:02 GMT -5
Grand Design: X-tinction #2, part 2. Near the finish line.
Page 21: Young Ororo Munroe survives as a thief, she meets up with Gambit and together they fight the Hounds. Ororo regains her memory when she is knocked out by one of the Hounds and Gambit agrees to help her. Notes: in the original these were minions of the Shadow King, who for some reason (one of Claremont's manu nebulous interlinked plots he never got around to actually work out) are dressed exactly the same as the Hounds from Rachel Summers timeline (including Rachel herself). Here they just are the enforcers of a local drug lord that both Storm and Gambit try to rob, but I'll call them Hounds anyway. No Shadow King chasing Storm and setting traps for her. Good, I dislike the Shadow King (Legion TV-series excluded).
Page 22-24: Storm and Gambit meet up with Jean who helps Storm recover all her memories. The New Mutants (Dani, Cannonball, Sunspot, Rahne and one woman I don't recognise) are also here now, lead by Cable, gathered by Jean, when the X-Mansion is attacked again by Genoshans. This time they brought reinforcement, including Alex Summers, and heavy equipment and they manage to capture five of the mutants. The battle has drawn attention of the media, the local authorities and somebody else: Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D arrives, none too pleased with foreigners assaulting and kidnapping people on American soil, even if they are mutants. The president wants to meet the X-Men's leaders to discuss how the issue. Notes: Piskor just focuses on the Uncanny X-Men Title during this whole series, as said before, which does lead to surprise changes in X-Factor and the New Mutants. The New Mutants here are all still dressed in their original school uniforms instead of their "graduation" costumes they were wearing at this point in time, but Cable is with them. One of them is a brownhaired woman with a green bandana, but I don't really recognise her. She is about as tall as Dani Moonstar (who is still with the New Mutants). It could be Kitty, but she is probably too tall and green bandana does not scream "Kitty" to me. No Rictor and Boom-Boom around, no X-factors protegees or Warlock. (Which is weird as Warlock plays an important role in the original X-tinction Agenda). Nick Fury was earlier portrayed as having a problem with mutants and he still has, but he considers America's laws and autonomy more important than his personal dislike. Oh and the two Genoshan mutates are called Jenny and Phillip, so I was wrong. In that case, the differences: they now are both mutates (Phillip was human), Jenny is not as big as she is in the original (and probably not as strong and invulnerable) and both are still bald even though they escaped some time ago.
I'll refer to the combined X-Men, X-Factor and New Mutants as just the X-Men from this point on, as it is a lot easier to type out.
Page 25: The X-Men leaders (Cyclops, Jean, Cable, Banshee and Forge) arrive at the Oval Office, but President Kelly talks to them through a monitor (why bring them to the Oval Office then? Easier to keep the President there and the mutants to another location), not trusting mutant telepaths around him with the state secrets he has. He explains that the US is dependent on Genoshan oil (and does not care when Jean tells him that that oil was found and extracted with mutant slave labour), but like Fury, he is enraged by Genoshan disregarding America's laws and his own power. The US will not interfere in the X-Men retrieving their comrades, but they will disavow them if they are captured.
Page 26: The X-Men arrive in Genosha and are attacked by Havok and the Magistrates. Havok openly uses his powers against them, knocking out most of the X-Men, but Cyclops is of course immune. Cyclops punches Havok and like with Storm his memories return (bah, modern medicine, a good boink on the head cures everything.), but he plays along with the Magistrates for now. Notes: Not too different. Banshee and Forge being there is a bit of a change.
page 27: Wolverine, Psylocke and Jubilee arrive at the Genegineer, Genosha's lead scientist, lab disguised as Genoshan soldiers, but Cameron Hodge turns up while they question him. Notes: The Genegineer looks different: bald with a beard.
Page 28: Hodge releases a video of four X-Men killing Genosha's president. Behind the scenes we see that the four X-Men are in fact mutates disguised as the X-Men. Hodge thanks them and poisons them to keep the death of the president a secret. Kelly condemns the X-men's actions and activates Project Nimrod: the activation of the Sentinels. Notes: Kitty and Nightcrawler are watching the news, so the woman I saw before was not Kitty. Mystique is also watching the news (probably telling herself that she should have shot him years ago). Hodge did plan to take control over Genosha in the original, but the details are a little different.
Page 29-32 The X-Men's public trial is a farce and they are found guilty. They get the choice: submitting to the mutate process and being turned into mindless slaves or death. All of them chose death. Alex races to save his friends and kills the mutate Wipeout who is blocking their powers. With their powers active again the X-Men fight back and manage to capture a plane. At this time, Hodge discovers something on his surveillance system: a threat to Genosha far greater than the X-Men: Kelly has decided to deal with both the danger of the X-Men and the problems of Genosha by nuking Genosha. The nuclear missiles hit the island and a large white explosion is all that can be seen. Notes: Yeah, here we are diverging greatly from the original comics. Of course in the original, the X-Men, X-Factor and the New Mutants unite. Storm is returned to her adult form and they manage to defeat Hodge and overthrow Genosha at the price of Warlock's life. A mostly happy ending with a sad tone for Warlock's fate. Here things are much more grim: no New Mutant makes it out alive.
Page 33: in the following year, the Sentinels have taken over America, the remaining mutants are incarnated in camps (Nightcrawler, Callisto, The Blob and Mystique) and then executed (we see a pile of skulls, but one of them has Mystique's skull jewelry on its forehead, leaving no doubt the fate of our heroes. A year later, people have noticed the disappearance of the mutants and the other superheroes start fighting back. Two years later and they too are defeated (not said whether the Sentinels manage to kill them, but we see pictures of Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Reed and Susan Richards, Iron Man, Namor, Hulk, Thing and Dr. Strange). The only resistance left alive after 4 years are a few mutants striking from the shadows: Wolverine, Rachel Summers and Bishop. Notes: As said, we have jumped from X-tinction Agenda straight into Days of Future Past. The fates of some mutants is different: Nightcrawler was said to be one of the first victims in the first story. The other superheroes are not mentioned. Bishop was not part of the original story (he also would not be born for many years in the original story)
Page 34-36: The Sentinels have completed their mission, but they do not stop. They now start to exterminate all humans that are different and those that had mutant offspring. Then they started to exterminate those who potentially give birth to mutants. One of their victims is President Kelly himself. The hidden mutants (the three mentioned before plus an older Forge and Kate Pryde) plan against the Sentinels. Forge needs a power source, so Logan takes out a Sentinel and takes its source. The Sentinels are alerted, but Forge has what he needs. Cable died years earlier, but not before teaching Forge the secrets of timetravel. The plan is to try two different tactics: one tactic is to send Rachel and Bishop back to key moments in time to alter them as they were not alive during these time periods (meeting another version of yourself can cause a paradox with enormous consequences). The other is projecting Kitty's mind back in her younger body. Forge and Wolverine hope that their plan pays off as the Sentinels find them and kill them. Notes: Changes here: No Magneto among the last survivors is a pretty big change. No Franklin Richards either. Rachel originally did the mind projecting, but here Forge's devices do that part. Forge's helmet is a lot more painful than Rachel's powers though.
Page 37-39: Kate takes over Kitty's body at Jean's wake. The X-Men think she is mad, but once Xavier scans her mind, they know better. Disguised as a high-ranking officer, Logan seeks out Carol, but is too late: Rogue has attacked her and Mystique has taken her place. Mystique steps onto the stage with Senators Stern and Kelly, but Xavier's powers prevent her from shooting either of them. Due to Kate's knowledge, the other X-Men exactly know what the other members of the Brotherhood will do and take them out. The Brotherhood is bound and left for Nick Fury to find, but Mystique escapes, leaving U.S. operative Raven Darkholme in her cell, who claims she was trying to interrogate Mystique (SHIELD never realises that Raven may have been Mystique all along).
Page 40:Xavier calls Cyclops on the phone. Foiling the death of Stern has changed the future: Kate Pryde's mind was erased from Kitty's body. Xavier wonders how Scott is dealing with Jean's death and he tells him that he is moving on. He is going to see Captain Lee Forrester about a job tomorrow. The Watcher finishes the story, telling us that humanity will continue to evolve and mutate. Note: Chosing to go to Lee Forrester instead of Madelyne Pryor at this point implies that the story will now follow the X-Men comics as they actually were published. This is confirmed by the final line. The final line is "To Be Continued in Uncanny X-Men Issue 143 March 1980"
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