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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 22, 2017 14:25:35 GMT -5
Didn't the original volume of Spider-Woman end with her quitting? She's back now, but (and I could be totally wrong here) it seems like she was out of the game for a good two decades. To update my previous response, yeah, kind of (I think.) She was killed at the end of her series, but revived a year later in an Avengers story meant to resolve the somewhat dodgy end of her final issue (not really Ann Nocenti's fault; I always got the impression she was rushed into concluding SW's story with the sudden cancellation of her series.) But even though Jessica was revealed to have lived, she was without her powers...I think? (Don't have those issues any more.) Anyway, yes, she did disappear for a long time. I remember her making a return appearance in Alias -- with her powers -- many years later. But I'm not sure if she appeared at all in between those two points. She appeared several times in Wolverine in the years between, she still had some of her powers (could stick to walls for instance), but she was not as powerful as before. She ran a detective agency with Lindsey McCabe during that time.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 22, 2017 14:21:16 GMT -5
First draft of this lost, second attempt:
First an announcement: I'm also reading Michael Cray, another series taking place in this universe, but so far it doesn't have a lot of references to the old Wildstorm Universe (and a rather big reference to the main DC universe), so I'm waiting to see how the series developed before discussing it here further.
The Wildstorm #8 by Warren Ellis (writer) and Jon Davis-Hunt (artist), Steve Buccellato (Colourist) and Simon Bowland (letterer).
The Cover: A desert with many Kheran Spaceships that have landed on it. The significance is unclear so far, but it may be a future reference to the old Wildstorm Universe: the Ancient Kherans seeded the universe with Creation Engines that terraformed suitable planets to be capable of sustaining Kheran life and changing any native species to be subservient to the Kherans.
Page 1: Marlowe explains his species backstory to Angie: the Kherans are a cooperative clade. A clade is a common ancestor and several of its linear subspecies (for instance if you had a society where Homo Sapiens, Homo Neanderthalis, Homo Floresiensis etc. lived together, that would be a cooperative clade). He explains that there are 5 types of Kherans (the original universe had a similar thought, mostly because Brandon and Jim created a group of superheroes with such different powers and abilities and claimed that they were descendent of the same species: Maul was a giant purple being, Warblade a being of liquid metal, the other basically looked like humans but had powers ranging from a bit stronger and faster than a normal human (Zealot) to manipulating time and space (Emp) to basically Superman (Majestros). Alan Moore then changed this so that Maul's species were a different species that lived on a planet that was colonized by Ancient Kherans). So far in the new series we have seen 4 confirmed Kherans and we know 3 of them are different clade-species (Zealot's clade is unknown, but if she and Kenesha are still sisters, she will belong to the same clade). So far we haven't seen Titans (Maul) or Shifters (Warblade) yet. It's also unclear how the 3 clade species we have seen so far differ from each other; Angie said that she could see that their internal organs and skeletal structure are different, but so far they have not shown any real difference in superhuman powers. Marlowe explains that the spaceship he came on had members of all 5 clades, so we can expect other clade members to show up sooner or later. They came to study the Gaian Bottleneck: few planets can sustain life and it's very hard for species to survive.
Page 2: We see the Kheran spaceship pass other planets: An ocean filled with broken towers. A burning desert with a single alien on stilts, looking like scavenger, dressed in rags. What looks like a mechanical planet or spaceship with a large section of it destroyed.
Page 3: The Kherans land on Earth. Marlowe explains that they came here because intelligent species are rare, they came to study. Their ship was scuttled though and interstellar flight is expensive and communication is difficult. Khera assumed they were death and no rescue operation was sent. We see the Kheran Spaceship landing in an ancient city. I'm not an expert at ancient architecture, but I'd say it's Mesopotamia? The ziggurat looks exactly like the ones I've seen pictures of, so I feel relatively sure that it's that one.
Page 4-5: Marlowe says that some of the survivors decided to help humanity past the Gaian Bottleneck. He offers Angie a lab and their assistance in return for data-readings from her suit. When leaving the room, Kenesha confront Marlowe to find out what he told her. It's clear that Marlowe didn't tell her everything, especially the reason the Kherans had to come to Earth (and the implication is that that reason was not benevolent). Marlowe claims that he fears Angie's powers and that she might be powerful enough to kill them all. He also says that he likes her.
Page 6-8 Jackie has some unusual ways to run her research division (including posting that the confirmative phrase of the week will be "Yo ho!". More to the point, analyzing pictures from the Black Razors, they identified Cole Cash as member of the Wild CAT. Cash is former I.O. (as he was in the original universe) and he was considered dead. They can't identify the other two members and the fact that one of them is wearing an astronaut flight suit, points to Skywatch. Miles is disturbed by that thought: Skywatch is allowed a ground division according to their treaties with IO, but a Black ops unit is something else. Also the wild CAT can teleport and they know that Bendix has teleportation rooms. Jackie leaves the meeting with Craven and tells Mitchell, her second-in-command that his new assignment is to gather a group and investigate if it's possible to hack Skywatch's database. This is illegal and they will be doing it behind Craven and Baiul's backs.
Page 9-11: New scene, new characters. We're in Amsterdam (and as a native dutchman I want to say it's either the Keizersgracht or the Prinsengracht. The colouring on the traffic sign and the mailbox is wrong. This is your dutch nitpick of the week.) Evi (no idea if she had a counterpart in original Wildstorm, I don't think so) meets with her friend Bram. She has been visiting a session by Shen Li-Min. Shen was the superhero Swift in the original universe, a member of Stormwatch with wings, talons and enhanced vision. Her role in this new universe is combined with that of the Doctor, a magician. Shen's powers still manifest with bird-like symbols (the drugs she gives to her followers are shaped like an egg and when she manifests her powers wings of energy manifest behind her). The most reknown Doctor in the Wildstorm Universe was a dutch former drug-addict.
Page 12-14: From Evi's point of view we see her experience when she takes the drug. It looks exactly like visiting the Bleed. Inside the Bleed a huge ship passes (a reference to the Authority's Carrier? Even if it doesn't look like the Carrier). On board are wraithlike aliens or ghosts, then the visits end.
Page 15: Shen confirms that she's the Doctor of this world. The Doctor has incredible magical powers and acts like the protective shaman of the planet, there is always a Doctor to protect the planet. Shen then states that her function in this world is to heal people. She does this one person at a time. Evi mentions that it was amazing, but that one girl didn't wake up.
Page 16: Shen tries to wake up the girl that is still asleep (worried how she's going to get rid of the body, but it might just be a sarcastic remark.) We recognise the girl as Jenny Sparks from previous issues. Shen enters Jenny's head: literally, she opens a hatch inide Jenny's head.
Page 17-18: A walk through Jenny's head, Shen walks through a British town (the sign says Hampton, so Southhampton?) Then she walks through a town with a faceless woman dressed in the style of the 1920s. Followed by western town in the last century with another faceless woman dressed in the style of the period. A field of wheat with another faceless woman (style of dress a little harder to pin down, because it can be anything from the past centuries). A forest with a faceless woman dressed like a medieval archer. A cave with a cavewoman. Presumably we are visiting previous Jenny's.
Page 19: Shen reaches the center of Jenny's mind/soul: a gigantic mechanical heart, with a baby inside and a string of DNA coming out of it. Two Daemons are standing around it and greet the Doctor, recognising her.
Page 20-21: Jenny wakes up, Shen wants answers. Jenny tells Shen to find a livestream video from London on her phone. Shen does not understand, but complies, but sees Jenny appearing in the livestream. She's gone. Shen calls for the previous Doctors.
Page 22: A garden with a giant stone structure with the words Hospital written on it. This place also appeared in previous Wildstorm universes: Doctors can call upon their predecessors and use their knowledge and their advise. We see three doctors: a blond woman, an elderly man and a man dressed in traditional Peruvian clothing. The elderly man identifies the two Daemons, claiming that he thought they were all death. Shen is more interested in the woman. The Peruvian male tells her that she is like the Doctors, but they only show up once things are about to go bad. So the idea of the Century babies is out, Jenny's appear when they are needed instead of being born at the beginning of each century and dying at the end. The blond woman explain that she is a Techne, a spirit of mechanical arts and crafts. Like the Century Babies before they are a planetary defense mechanism. The elderly man explains that these type of beings are very focused on their goals, even if they can get distracted. If this woman visited her, she must have had a good reason to do so. The blond woman says that the one she met centuries ago was Joan Silver, an alchemist. Shen says that this one is called Jenny Mei Sparks. This is a nod to Jenny Quantum in the previous Wildstorm universe: Jenny Sparks was the spirit of the 20th Century and died in the Authority when the 20th century ended, her successor, Jenny Quantum was born in China at the start of the 21st Century. Interestingly nobody seems worried that two Daemons were involved with Jenny Sparks; so we can be pretty sure that the Daemons are more like the later Wildstorm universe Daemons were it was revealed that they are not an evil species and most of them are quite peaceful, the ones on Earth were just survivors from a military ship at war with a very fanatic crew (and even there there were pacifists that just lived a peaceful life in the shadows after the crash).
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 20, 2017 12:35:53 GMT -5
Grant Morrison's WildC.A.T.s. and Authority. Both series had brilliant runs before (Joe Casey/Dustin Nguyen and Warren Ellis/Brian Hitch). We had a clean slate, a complete reboot. Morrison was going strong off several projects. Even popular artist like Jim Lee and Gene Ha. And then we got for both series a single issue (ok, 2 issues for Authority, months later). One was incoherent (WildC.A.T.s), the other plain boring (Authority). And then Morrison went off to sulk.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 20, 2017 6:10:06 GMT -5
I wonder what they can offer to creators this time that they'll go for Vertigo over Image or one of the other Indie publishers. That was the main reason Vertigo ceased to exist before: their contracts were not attractive compared to either working on Big Two titles (little control, but steady income) or independents (less financial security, but more control and ownership of your creations).
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 19, 2017 11:27:27 GMT -5
Why do we love characters like Superman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Wolverine, and Spiderman? What makes Magneto, Lex Luthor, and the Joker our go-to villains? What is it about these characters that make them so popular? Is it the writing, the illustrations, or their own make-up and characteristics? Good or bad. Villain or hero. Why do they deserve the popularity they have received? (This is by far a non-exhaustive list.) Superman: I always loved the concept more than the execution. The best Superman stories to me are the ones that don't have him as the main character and more how other people react to and behave around him. I do like his early Golden Age version: two Jewish guys imagining what they would do if they had the power to set the world right. Captain America: Never a fan, sorry. I think it's the Atlantic divide. Wonder Woman: I think I only run on Wonder Woman I completely read was the Azarello run, so let's say I don't have a firm grasp on here. I would like to read more of Marston's original comics (quite interested in the documentary about him coming up as well). Also would totally read a version of Wonder Woman drawn and written by Sejic. Magneto: More in my wheelhouse here. It's the combination between Claremont's man who has understable motives but wrong methods and Kirby's very strong design. That helmet will always be his best design point, people changed it a little over the years but the core visual concept is so strong. He also has superpowers that have been used in many creative ways, so a strong visual with interesting powers and an understandable motivation. The only weird thing is that Claremont chose this guy to be a holocaust survivor when he was basically just superpowered Nazi under Lee&Kirby (just look at the way he dresses his personal army in early X-Men). Lex Luthor: Lex has been all over the place over the years: the Golden Age crazy scientist, the bronze Age corrupt businessman, Hackman's conman, his current flawed hero, ... whatever Eisenberg was.. I think his pride and arrogance are the only real constant. Whatever he is, he won't accept that there is a Super(ior) Man. Joker: Not that fan of his newer incarnations (he's crazy, he's super-unpredictable! He has another plan where he releases poison gas while hiding out in an abandoned carnival), but the criminal prankster I always liked, puncturing Batman's self-seriousness, but losing his sense of humor once the joke is on him.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 18, 2017 9:30:23 GMT -5
Loved the Flintstones series. Are you going to read the 6 issue Jetsons series? You know what? I just might. I'm quite looking forward to his Snagglepuss. I'll take sentences I never thought I'd say for 500, Alex.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 18, 2017 9:18:05 GMT -5
Finished Battle Chasers: the story is completely by the numbers, no surprises or reveals that you didn't see coming miles away. The combat system and crafting is a lot of fun though.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 15, 2017 9:24:40 GMT -5
So I've not been here in a while so a long, long list of new European comics I've read lately:
New Largo Winch "Morning Star": Van Hamme has left this title as well, so I don't think he's doing any of his main titles anymore. The new writer picks up with as little fanfare as possible and continues where Van Hamme left the title. Our subject this time: algorithmic trading. A character is killed off off-screen, which left a bad taste in my mouth, but for the rest if you were into Largo Winch before, it is pretty much the same title. As always stories are two-parters so let's see if they can stick the landing.
Wika volume 1 and 2: LeDroit has quit Requiem Vampire Knight and Pat Mills and taken up Wika Faerie Knight and Thomas Day (probably not the Thomas Day I know, cause he died over 200 years ago). Wika Grimm is the daughter of Count Grimm and Titania, but her parents are killed by the faerie prince Oberon. The baby Wika is saved by a servant (at the cost of her wings) and later discovers her true heritage. It's LeDroit, so expect glorious designs, explicit violence and nudity and dark humour. Upside compared to Requiem, it's not taking place in Hell so not every character needs to be a horrible person. Downside: Oberon's children are based on the Seven Sins and they are pretty on the nose (except for their leader Rage, who seems rather nice and in control so far.)
Storm #30: I had hoped that last issue change in status quo would give this series some energy, but this issue was still a by-the-numbers game. The art is style nice, though Molenaar is moving more and more away from Lawrence's style. (Note if you call your fictional city Torkien, be prepared for any booksellers website to autocorrect that to Tolkien).
The Adventures of Hel #2: #1 was written by Henk Kuijpers, but he went back to Franka, so somebody else picked up the writing here. Hel gets a sidekick, her new roommate. Bit early to be replacing the supporting cast I'd think. The inspiration by Kuijpers is still obvious (a bit too much even, on several pages I was playing "spot the landmark" whenever a part of the story was stated to be in a specific city.)
Cognac #1: Recommended, a story that combines the production of Cognac with a murder case. Part 2 just came out in hardcover.
Spirou by Marc Legendre: Very disappointing, Legendre is a big name: I liked his Biebel and Sam, but he's done a lot of more serious works. His most recent and possible most reknown work was reinventing Willy Vandersteen's Suske&Wiske, now aimed at young adults, but there is not a lot of reinventing in his Spirou (of course Spirou already went through several reimages over the years, Tome&Janry twice, Emil Bravo, Yann... so the bar is a lot higher here) and what we are left with is a by-the-numbers Belgian comicbook that is not very funny or clever. I'm looking forward to this month's Spirou though, the first Spirou by a dutchman (Hanco Kolk). I love Kolk's Gilles de Geus (co-created by him and Peter de Wit) and he has international reknown (did illustrations for the New Yorker and his Meccano won basically all the awards).
I'm in the train, so that's pretty much all I remember I bought in the past couple of weeks.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 12, 2017 5:18:07 GMT -5
The Alan Davis run and the Warren Ellis runs are some of my favourite comics, but the first one is more a continuation of Captain Britain than any X-Men title.
The Claremont/Davis run was decent enough, but I was getting annoyed with Claremont's writing ticks at the time.
All fillers are terrible.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 11, 2017 4:01:38 GMT -5
Had a discussion with a film teacher recently and he noted that Understanding Comics was also an essential part of his curriculum, because a lot of the things McCloud explains apply to any work that combines image with text/sound and editing between different scenes.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 10, 2017 2:20:10 GMT -5
So Bill Finger was the person that added many of the trappings for Batman, who would you credit as doing the same for Superman after Siegel and Shuster ? Didn't a lot of those trappings come from the radio show? Might be difficult to find specific creators there.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 9, 2017 3:06:48 GMT -5
I don't even know with Star Wars comics anymore: they are at Disney, so they publish at Marvel, but they also publish at IDW?
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 7, 2017 9:09:35 GMT -5
Bit further into Battle Chasers: weird how Garrison and Gully almost immediately replace their weapons with things they pick up at a blacksmith or so, while they were incredibly powerful artifacts in the comics (I did notice you can't sell their two starter weapons, so there may be more going on and you unlock their true power or so later on). The combat system is really fun though once you unlock a few abilities. Also enemies are starting to become a bit more interesting (I will be really glad once JRPGs decide we no longer need to fight spiders, bats and slimes till lvl 10 or so). The hunts are far more difficult than their levels suggest; the first one had lvl 10, but it was one-hit killing party members with regular attacks at that level.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 7, 2017 7:18:17 GMT -5
I just finished Flintstones volume 2, this was a great series.
I also read the Dastardly and Mutley series, but it's not doing anything for me, so I guess I'll drop it.
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Post by Dizzy D on Oct 4, 2017 5:00:57 GMT -5
I recently bought and read the Blondel/Poli series and Moorcock has said that this was his own favourite adaption.
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