|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 13, 2018 3:38:04 GMT -5
Well, what about X Men Black: Magneto and White Queen? Mostly X Men Black Magneto since Magneto was a big part of X Men Blue Haven't read the Magneto one (I've given up on Claremont years ago). I got the Mojo one (which was disappointing) and the Emma Frost one (see below)
Emma Frost: Emma meets up with the X-Men to tell them that Sebastian Shaw is rebuilding the Hellfire Club. She is no longer an X-Man, but wants to help them because Shaw is bad news. Using Emma's information, the X-Men take out Shaws allies, but Emma then steps into the place left behind and takes control of the Hellfire Club as the new Black King (yes, King, not Queen).
Edit: The backstory with Apocalypse had art I liked a lot, but I am not up to Apocalypse current state in the X-Men universe. The last time I saw him, he was dead and Evan, his clone, was at the school.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 12, 2018 10:26:20 GMT -5
We all know the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) started out as a Spider-Man villain. Then Frank Miller made him one of Daredevil's villains and today he is thought of mostly as DD's enemy. Has there been any other villains that have "switched" heroes as enemies for an extended period of time?
I'll skip the kind of villains that show up all over the place like Mephisto, Dr. Doom and so on, making an exception for Thanos.
Usually it's a writer creating a villain for one series and taking him/her with him to another:
Mystique was introduced as a villain in Ms. Marvel, but was almost immediately moved over to X-Men. (Then again Ms. Marvel and X-Men were closely related in a lot of plots.)
Similar to Arcade, who is introduced fighting Spider-Man and Captain Britain, but these days mostly deals with the X-Men.
Sabretooth starting out as an Iron Fist villain, but switching over to Wolverine. (Maybe Viper as well, introduced in Spiderwoman where she played a big part, then she was a major part in Wolverine for a while. But then again, she has been all over the place.)
Thanos started out in Iron Man, but usually is more connected to Marvel's cosmic heroes and Iron Man and him only face off when the rest of the Avengers are invited.
I was considering Lady Deathstrike, but she was not a villain in Daredevil.
Maybe Gruenwald's Maelstrom, a villain originally tied to the Inhumans, but probably more closely associated with Gruenwald's run on Quasar.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 12, 2018 10:03:57 GMT -5
When I was in grad school (studying ancient/medieval history), my thesis adviser (Prof. Sunshine, no lie) had what he called Sunshine's Law of Historical Movies, which stated, any movie depicting historical or "true events" will tell you more about the time it was made and the people making it than it will about the time it is set or the people it is about. All history is interpretation of events by those doing the telling. It is all biased in some way or another, the key is in identifying the bias of the tellers. Facts and evidence are one thing, but history is another, it is a story based on those facts and evidence told through the lens of the teller's interpretation of them. Even first hand accounts and primary sources are biased and will contain inaccuracies based on the lens of the witness/teller. Secondary and tertiary sources even more so. So inaccuracies in historical or biopics do not bother me much, as they are in and of themselves historical clues telling us about the time the story is told and what is important tot he people of that time, especially when contrasted with other sources and evidence about the topic. What matters to me about such movies is-is it a good movie? Does it tell a good story that I enjoy experiencing? I don't go in expecting accuracy because I know better. Even if the movie were 100% true to source material it would still contain inaccuracies, it would just be those of the source material not of the movie makers doing. People believe the fallacy that there is a "T"rue history or that history is an infallible fact based account. Nothing can be further from the truth. At best, it is a best guess based on what evidence and sources we have available, and it is a rarity when it even achieves that (and if all the sources agree or are uncontested or that a majority of historians agree on what they say actually means, or that the sources are even reliable in their accounts or that new evidence or sources won;t come to light to totally change our understanding or that evidence and sources are not being deliberately ignored because they challenge the "accepted" accounts, etc. etc.). What can bother me is if the filmmakers/storytellers misrepresent what they are actually doing, but then a part of that is on me for not going in with my eyes open and determining for myself what the movie actually aspires to be. -M
Reminds me a lot about what William Gibson has said (I thought it was Gibson at least) about science fiction: all science fiction is about the present. Something we are noticing more and more as we catch up to and surpass a lot of classic sci-fi books and movies.
As for the topic itself:
I like accuracy in my movies, but I don't demand it. I just feel that if a writer, director or actor did his work in researching the period of the piece, the events surrounding it and so on, that it nearly always result in a better product in the end. I also think that if you want to make a story out of it, you *will* have to change things, because reality never follows the structure of a regular story (unless it's a Coen's style story where the protagonists don't know what is going on, learn nothing and/or nothing gets resolved). I also like if movies/books/comics include an in-story reason for changing events , presenting the story as told by an unreliable narrator for instance, or just ignore history in the most blatant way to show "yes, no historical accuracy here at all" a la Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 12, 2018 3:42:06 GMT -5
Comics I read half an hour ago tonight Marvel's newer Star Wars series. issues 9 and 10 X Men Blue # 33 to 36. I take it that X Men Black sort of continues the young original X Men or whatever? The X-Men Black that came out (I don't know if there will be an ongoing with the same name) was just a series of oneshots focusing on various (former) villains and setting some of them up for future storylines.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 9, 2018 9:02:32 GMT -5
I was just thinking, who's the biggest comic character who's only appeared in team books and has never had a (regular) solo series? I cant think of many, even characters who were primarily members of a team ended up having their own books eventually. Thinking outside the superhero box... what about members of the Archie or Peanuts gangs? They are way more famous than, say, Kitty Pryde.
If we're going in that direction: Obelix or Captain Haddock.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 8, 2018 10:25:10 GMT -5
I think there's not alot these days...Valkyrie sorta had Fearless Defenders.. it wasn't a solo book in name, but it was pretty close. On the DC side, maybe Kilowog? Alfred (though he definitely had backups at one point)? Aqualad/Tempest (I know there was a mini, but never an ongoing)?
Did Wildcat ever get a solo-series?
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 8, 2018 7:39:01 GMT -5
And well over a decade of Patsy Walker, technically. I don't think Valkyrie has ever had an ongoing solo... maybe not even a mini-series. Colossus? Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Iceman all got ongoing series for the first time very recently, but I don't think there was nothin' for poor Mr. Rasputin.
Colossus had some mini's, but no ongoing as far as I know. (Don't think Kitty ever got an ongoing either, just a bunch of mini's though these days it's very hard to determine what is an ongoing that got cancelled 5 issues in and what is a limited series.)
The real answer is obviously Galactus, who is far larger than other characters and never got a solo series
(I could have made the same joke with some other cosmic character like Eternity or so)
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 5, 2018 6:04:48 GMT -5
Brubaker and Phillips latest Criminal work: this time it's a OGN named "My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies". It is tied to an earlier story in Criminal, but can easily be read as a standalone.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Nov 2, 2018 7:17:48 GMT -5
She could control it for a while, but not anymore.
During Carey's run, Xavier finally managed to help her control her powers. She also lost the Ms. Marvel powers around that time.
She recently* lost the control again in Uncanny Avengers and ended up merged with Wonder Man. Wonder Man was later freed from Rogue's body, but as far as I know, she still has his powers.
She currently is married to Gambit and she uses a power dampener whenever the two want to get intimate.
I suppose that’s better than babysitting Leech whenever she and Gambit want to get together! So she can’t fly anymore? Bummer! She still has Wonderman powers and he can fly on his own powers for the past 20 years or so. But I don't think they've really went into how his powers would affect her. He is made of ionic energy and doesn't age/need to eat etc. Is Rogue now full energy as well? Thompson hasn't gone into that yet (the series is fun though, basically a romantic comedy with Rogue and Gambit as newly-weds in Shi'ar space babysitting the child of Xavier and Lilandra.)
(Reminds me of Polaris who was depowered with M-day and repowered by Apocalypse implanting Celestial tech into her that mimicked her powers, but as far as anybody is concerned right now, she just has her old powers.)
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Oct 31, 2018 8:15:05 GMT -5
X-question : can Rogue touch people, now? Her wikipedia page mentions numerous alterations to her powers since the early 90s. Last I knew, she had Ms. Marvel’s powers and memories on a permanent basis, and couldn’t touch anyone without stealing theirs temporarily.
She could control it for a while, but not anymore.
During Carey's run, Xavier finally managed to help her control her powers. She also lost the Ms. Marvel powers around that time.
She recently* lost the control again in Uncanny Avengers and ended up merged with Wonder Man. Wonder Man was later freed from Rogue's body, but as far as I know, she still has his powers.
She currently is married to Gambit and she uses a power dampener whenever the two want to get intimate.
*= recently is already 5-6 years ago...
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Oct 20, 2018 5:10:00 GMT -5
Also 3 episodes in and also loving it so far.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Oct 17, 2018 13:55:30 GMT -5
Saul #1 "The Living Cloak": When I read Lemuria and reviewed it here, I said that this was the most blatant copy/homage of Martin Lodewijk and Don Lawrence's Storm. Apparently Willem Ritsier and Apri Kusbiantoro saw that post and said "Hold my beer." To be fair, Lemuria was published by Don Lawrence estate and was a loveletter to his artystyle and Saul is equally open about its origins (also Ritsier has written one of the post-Lawrence issues of Storm itself and Kusbiantoro was the artist on the first 2 issues of Lemuria, so ... no suprises there.) To be even more fair, Ritsier has done a lot of very diverse work (comedy, sci-fi, sports, autobiographical, thriller and so on), so he's not a one-trick pony who is building his whole career on working on the decades-old creation of a more talented writer/artist(must.. not.. make .. dig.. at.. certain.. American.. writers/artists... Aw... failed....) So the story: Saul has been accused of a crime he didn't commit. So he goes on the run, chased by bounty hunters that want the reward on his head. A cyclone takes him to a land where he is attacked by giants and saved by dwarves who are convinced he is their leader. He is possessed by the cloak they give to him. Meanwhile, Lea, a bounty hunter has followed his tracks and is recruited by a witch that wants to stop Saul from summoning the former owner of the cloak. Saul is physically an exact copy of Storm. I like Storm better, because he is smarter, more curious about the world around him and always tries to explain the weirdness happening to him, but Saul is not a blank persona, so he has that going for him. Lea is the obvious Roodhaar/Redhair analogue, but as the person hunting Saul, their relationship is more antagonistic (though not completely, Lea is willing to help Saul to defeat the greater evil without the usual distrust/bickering that lesser writers would inject). The story itself does not include the sci-fi elements early Storm would include, but is straight up fantasy. The ending is anticlimatic and we skip between different scenes a bit too fast to actually develop the characters. Overall: better than Lemuria, not as good as Storm. If following issues take a bit more time to make us care about the characters, it could be good. As it is, it's a mediocre fantasy story and from what I've seen Ritsier should be better than this.
Irons #1 by Luc Brahy and Tristan Roulot. The story opens with young Jack and his family falling with their car into a lake when the bridge they are on collapses. Thanks to his father's advise, Jack manages to survive, but he's the only one. Years later, an adult Jack has become a brilliant engineer, but he also lacks any empathy or sense of tact. While visiting a Canadian island, the bridge connecting the island to the main land collapses. Jack's attempts to leave the island (he has a business meeting within a few days) fail, so he offers his expertise to investigate the collapse in exchange for a ride on the police boat to the mainland. Overall: It's a thriller/mystery and overall I enjoyed it. The biggest downside for me was Jack Irons himself; the brilliant asshole is a character type that I've seen too often before (really aspiring writers, being a complete dick to people around you does not make you smarter in any way) and Irons is not really adding anything new to that mix. On the upside, the story was interesting. There are multiple parties involved, each with their own agenda and at the beginning it is not even clear if the collapse is an accident, sabotage or even a terrorist attack.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Oct 1, 2018 10:33:31 GMT -5
I enjoyed the second season far more than the first, which had a strong first half, but lost the plot halfway through. In the second season all characters have their own goals and methods, allowing for alliances to easily change and it keeps things a lot more interesting.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Oct 1, 2018 8:55:22 GMT -5
Carlos Ezquerra, Spanish comic book artist and co-creator of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog passed away earlier today. Ezquerra had been diagnosed with lung cancer about a decade ago.
Ezquerra's work was mostly for 2000AD, but some of his work was for US publishers, usually paired with Garth Ennis (Preacher: Saint of Killers for Vertigo, Kev for Wildstorm, Just A Pilgrim and Battlefields for Dynamite are some of the works.)
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Sept 30, 2018 15:06:25 GMT -5
Page 21: Wolverine and Storm are cured from their Brood infection, but the others are not so lucky. The Brood Egg in Carol has some unforeseen consequences and she transforms into a new form of herself, purging the Brood Egg and the energy she generates kills off the other Brood eggs, saving the other X-Men. Kitty find a small dragon which she befriends. Carol with her new powers takes care off the remaining Brood and the X-Men escape on board of their spaceship. Observations: In the original comics, Carol's transformation into Binary is a result of Brood experiments, here it is the unforeseen result of a Brood egg in a human/Kree hybrid. Lockheed was a ferocious hunter of Brood in the original comics, we see none of that here. Kitty just befriends the little dragon. In the original, the Brood were nearly wiped out here by Carol's new powers, here she manages to destroy much of their fleet, but just secures their escape.
Page 22-23: The Starjammer returns to Earth, where Xavier has gathered a new group of mutants to save them. Xavier has not left his office for days though, overtaken by the Brood egg inside him. The X-Men and the New Mutants team up to take down Xavier, but Wolverine stops short of killing him when Xavier's consciousness still is active within the Brood. Dr. Sikorsky of the Starjammers transplants Xavier's brain into a new cloned body. While the X-Men and the Starjammers were busy with the Brood, Lilandra's sister Deathbird has taken over the Shi'ar Empire. On Earth, Cyclops discovers that Madelyne is the survivor of a plane crash, the same day Jean became the Phoenix. In New York, Xavier receives a distress call from Warren Worthington and Nightcrawler investigates: Nightcrawler follows the kidnappers into the tunnels below New York. Observations: Corsair apologizes that the Starjammers were not present to fight the Brood, so they left Xavier alone on the Starjammer apparently. Also Cyclops doubts about Madelyne's history were manipulated by Mastermind in the original comics, but he doesn't seem to be present here.
Page 24-25: The X-Men find and fight the Morlocks who have kidnapped Angel. Kitty agrees to marry Caliban in order to save her teammates, but Storm challenges Callisto, the Morlock's leader to a duel. Storm wins, nearly killing Callisto, who is only saved by the Morlock Healer. As their new leader, she offers the Morlocks sanctuary at Xavier's mansion, but they refuse to leave their home. Observations: No changes here.
Page 26: Rogue arrives at the X-Mansion looking for help. The New Mutants are hostile, knowing that she was responsible for the attack on Carol Danvers, but Xavier offers her help. Carol is not as forgiving and attacks Rogue with her new powers. Xavier explains why he wants to help Rogue. Carol is not pleased, but will not fight him and leaves. Xavier tells Rogue that she can return and that nobody will hurt her. Observations: In the original, the X-Men are there when Rogue arrives, here the door is opened by the New Mutants. Their hostility towards Rogue is a bit weird as they hardly know Carol Danvers at this point, but perhaps they have come to know her in these couple of days.
Page 27-29: Cyclops contacts Xavier to see if he has discovered anything about Madelyne. Xavier thinks that all the similarities are just coincidence. Logan has invited the X-Men to Japan for his wedding to Mariko, but is shocked to see that Rogue has become a member. Mariko is not pleased with Logan's attitude towards her and proves herself a better host than her future husband. During a tea ceremony, the X-Men are poisoned. Only Rogue and Wolverine recover quickly due to their powers and find that Mariko has been kidnapped. They follow the trail and find Mariko's half-brother the Silver Samurai behind the plot. Rogue frees Mariko, but is wounded by the Silver Samurai's allies as she protects Mariko from their Vibranium bullets. Wolverine lets the Samurai escape so he can save Mariko and offers his healing powers to Rogue. When both are recovered, Mariko calls off the wedding until she has stopped her half-brother. Observations: Three major changes in this story compared to the original: during this story Storm met Yukio, a meeting that would change her attitude and looks. The Silver Samurai's allies are just regular Yakuza here (though Yakuza with very advanced weaponry). In the original comics, the Silver Samurai's lover, Viper, is a well-known villain herself with ties to HYDRA and A.I.M. In the original, Mariko calls off the wedding under the influence of Mastermind, but he's not seen here (he could be an influence off-panel though).
Page 30: Cyclops asks Madelyne to marry him, but is still wondering about her ties to the Phoenix/Jean Grey. He asks her outright, but she hits him. For a second, she looks like Dark Phoenix, but then returns to herself. Observations: Like with Mariko in Japan, Mastermind was influencing Scott and Madelyne's relationship with his illusions. Something which was a lot easier for him, because Scott and Madelyne were also invited to Japan instead. Here they are in Alaska while the others are in Japan, so it is unlikely that Mastermind is pulling the strings.
Page 31: Several short scenes that give some background to events that happened in the original comics. Xavier gives Kitty the go-ahead to design her own costume. Illyana is not impressed with her green Sprite-costume, but likes the blue Shadowcat one. Xavier tells Rogue that physically, she is completely healthy, but there are still traces of mental trauma due to recent events. He can't do anything about the remnants of Carol Danvers in her mind. Storm shares her symbiotic relationship with the Earth with Charles, showing him how she sees and feels the world. Carol Danver meets up with her lover Michael Rossi, who has been tasked by Nick Fury to find a mole within S.H.I.E.L.D. Observations: The series skips over Kitty's short-lived demotion to New Mutant. The scene with Storm is probably here to emphasize how important Storm's powers are to her. In the original comics, Michael and Carol would not meet up again for years; Carol left Earth when Xavier invited Rogue to the mansion and went into space with the Starjammers.
Page 32-33: Despite missing Jean, Cyclops marries Madelyne Pryor. H.P. Gyrich orders deputy director Raven Darkholme to get the power neutralizer from Forge so they can test it on Rogue, a terrorist involved in the death of Senator Stern. Gyrich does not know that Raven is Mystique, Rogue's foster mother. To protect her daughter, Mystique orders the Brotherhood to attack Colossus, while she infiltrates the mansion to kill Xavier and free Rogue. The attack on Colossus leaves him frozen as a statue, but Rogue protects Xavier against her mother and convinces her that the X-Men can help her better than she can. Mystique relents. Observations: No big changes here as far as I can tell.
Page 34-35: Caliban has kidnapped Kitty to hold her to her promise to marry him. She agrees, hoping that the Healer can help Colossus. Storm appears and turns Kitty's request into an order. The Healer is unable to help Colossus though; he can heal flesh and disease, but not a man of steel. Rogue absorbs Colossus power (and wounds), allowing the Healer to heal Peter's human body. Before touching Colossus, Rogue touched Wolverine and his healing factor restores her. Storm tells Rogue that she has now earned her place with the X-Men. Kitty thanks Caliban and agrees to come with him, but Caliban releases her from her promise, having seen that she loves Colossus and not him. Observations: Not much change here from the original. In the original story, Kitty is not immediately kidnapped by the Morlocks, but first tries to find help at the Baxter Building. Touching Colossus so that the Healer can heal him was suggested by Xavier in the original, here it's an act of sacrifice by Rogue herself to help her new teammates.A change I like a lot, because it helps with Rogue getting more and more accepted by the X-Men after risking her life at various points to help them.
Page 36-37: Rogue overhears a call from help from Michael Rossi and the part of her that is Carol Danvers immediately comes into action. She goes to the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier to save Rossi from a corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D agent who works for the Hellfire Club. Shaw orders the agent to eliminate all witnesses after finding out the Rossi knows his name, but is knocked out by Rogue. Rogue saves Rossi, thinking that she's Carol. Rossi realizes who she is and chases her away. On the helicarrier, the traitor is wounded but survives and tells Fury that Rogue attacked and killed his fellow agents. Observations: The main difference in this story is that Michael has already met Carol after her fight with Rogue, so knows what happened to her. In the original he is confused for a long time why this girl thinks she's Carol and is shocked to find out what happened to her.
Page 38: The death of senator Stern plus the death of several S.H.I.E.L.D agents brings Rogue to the top of the most wanted lists and Gyrich is now determined to test out Forge's device on Rogue. Raven's attempts to keep the device out of Gyrich's hands failed, because Val Cooper managed to get the device from Forge. Raven decides to contact Forge who is furious when he learns that the weapon is to be used on a living subject. Observations: Minor changes again, but nothing major.
Page 39-40: Storm joins Rogue and finds out how Rogue first discovered her mutant powers; by kissing her first boyfriend who immediately falls unconscious. Storm shares her power with Rogue to make her feel better, but Gyrich tries to shoot Rogue with the device at this point. Forge tries to stop him, but throws off his aim, so he hits Storm. Forge takes Storm home to take care of her, but Gyrich does not feel like he did anything wrong. Xavier can no longer discover Storm with Cerebro and keeps searching. Forge tries to convince Storm to find new reasons to live, but Storm remains depressed. Observations: This is the point in this version of the story where Storm changes her hairstyle to the mohawk. A major difference here seems to be that Storm is aware of Forge's role in the loss of her powers.
To be continued next year in issue #5 or rather X-Men Grand Design: X-tinction #1.
So, we're four issues in at this point. Piskor has made a lot of changes some minor, some major to turn the story of the X-Men into a single greater narrative. Some of the changes work for me, some changes not. There are a few changes that mystify me.
So the major changes that I liked: In the first part, Piskor expanded the effect of Namor's attack on New York City in the late 30s/early 40s on human/mutant relations. As the “first” mutant of Marvel an attack on a major city in the US would definitely colour the feelings regular Americans would have regarding mutants. Linking the interest many alien species have in humanity and specfically in humans to the Phoenix force on the look for a host helps to explain why so many alien species are interested in Earth. Merging several of these alien species into a single, united group (Lucifer's Quill, Mutant Master's race and the Z'Nox) helps the Grand Design. A problem with the story here is caused by the many retcons regarding the Phoenix over the years; does the Phoenix possess a host or replace them? All the stories of the Phoenix past talk about possession, but in case of Jean she is clearly replaced by the entity.
The minor changes that I liked: Expanding on the motivations of some characters at the time (for instance linking Count Nefaria's first battle with the X-Men to just a small part in a bigger plan he had.) Putting Mesmero with Magneto's X-Men cleans up some issues later on when Mesmero is retconned into working for a Magneto duplicate.
Minor things I disliked:
the disappearance of Banshee without comment from the team is the biggest one. Changing the Changeling (no pun intended) from a mutant that wanted to redeem himself to a mindless android. I don't think that added anything to the story/removed elements that were making the story too convoluted. I did not like how the Proteus story, still one of the best X-Men stories IMHO, almost completely happens off-screen. We also skip completely over Days of Future Past, another classic X-Men story. I'm willing to oversee this change though, as issue six of this series will deal with this future timeline.
Then there are the changes that did not make much sense to me. I understand that a lot of the minor characters were left out of the series to keep things flowing: we never see Amanda Sefton or Candy Southern or Fred Duncan and so on, but some of the characters left out of this series, did play an important part in the development of certain characters. In the last issue, we never see Yukio or her influence on both Storm and Wolverine. Destiny is never seen with the Brotherhood, while she is very important to Mystique and Rogue. Viper only plays a minor part in these stories, but her part is taken by some random Yakuza member assisting Silver Samurai. But we do keep Spider-Woman appearing in the first Caliban story, even though she plays no role on page.Or Machine Man inserted into Magneto's escape from the Stranger's planet. Some loose ends regarding some characters could also have been adressed: How did Beast change? What happened to Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch after Magneto left (something we all know, but still nice to have it on paper). Both small questions with short answers that would have taken up a panel or 2 max.
|
|