Fantastic Four #2 was a big improvement from #1. Enjoyed the issue. Really enjoyed the Future Foundation. Fun high concept villian. Reed & Sue. Good stuff.
My only gripe is that I prefer my Reed Richards "beefy" not skinny. I know it's silly, but...
My only problem was the high concept villain feels really low concept if you read Al Ewing's Ultimates (which was Fantastic Four in absentia before Marvel Two-In-One took over that role).
Griever feels like a lightweight version of The First Firmament, the motives are different, but the threat is the same. However The First Firmament was born out of developing a piece of old FF continuity, whereas Griever feels like a mechanism to get the team where Slott wants them.
That being said, it was still a great comic, and I like we have a quick thinking Reed Richards who outsmarts his foes instead of a Richards who makes grand plans that fall apart. Too often people have ended up writing Richards too much like Doom.
Doom should be the guy who gets caught up in the rigidity of his thinking, Reed should be the guy whose thinking is as flexible as his body.
Fantastic Four #2 was a big improvement from #1. Enjoyed the issue. Really enjoyed the Future Foundation. Fun high concept villian. Reed & Sue. Good stuff.
My only gripe is that I prefer my Reed Richards "beefy" not skinny. I know it's silly, but...
My only problem was the high concept villain feels really low concept if you read Al Ewing's Ultimates (which was Fantastic Four in absentia before Marvel Two-In-One took over that role).
Griever feels like a lightweight version of The First Firmament, the motives are different, but the threat is the same. However The First Firmament was born out of developing a piece of old FF continuity, whereas Griever feels like a mechanism to get the team where Slott wants them.
And the character design is bit "anime" for my taste. However, the thought of fighting entropy is interesting to me.
Like many, my reading has gravitated more towards Indys these day. I haven't read Ultimates, but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the knowledge.
Fantastic Four #2 was a big improvement from #1. Enjoyed the issue. Really enjoyed the Future Foundation. Fun high concept villian. Reed & Sue. Good stuff.
My only gripe is that I prefer my Reed Richards "beefy" not skinny. I know it's silly, but...
My only problem was the high concept villain feels really low concept if you read Al Ewing's Ultimates (which was Fantastic Four in absentia before Marvel Two-In-One took over that role).
Griever feels like a lightweight version of The First Firmament, the motives are different, but the threat is the same. However The First Firmament was born out of developing a piece of old FF continuity, whereas Griever feels like a mechanism to get the team where Slott wants them.
And the character design is bit "anime" for my taste. However, the thought of fighting entropy is interesting to me.
Like many, my reading has gravitated more towards Indys these day. I haven't read Ultimates, but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the knowledge.
Like most of Al Ewing's Marvel writing, I highly recommend if you're about 40 and read too many Marvel comics in the 80s.
Between Contest of Champions, Mighty Avengers and Ultimates, Ewing was the guy who picked up the baton from Hickman after Secret Wars and tried to explain exactly what had happened when the universe was destroyed and rebuilt.
And he does from the starting point of a fact that has been long established - that this universal death and rebirth has happened before - namely the universe that Galen/Galactus came from was destroyed prior to the Marvel Universe coming into being.
But that's just the starting point and it escalates from there!
Fantastic Four #2 was a big improvement from #1. Enjoyed the issue. Really enjoyed the Future Foundation. Fun high concept villian. Reed & Sue. Good stuff.
My only gripe is that I prefer my Reed Richards "beefy" not skinny. I know it's silly, but...
My only problem was the high concept villain feels really low concept if you read Al Ewing's Ultimates (which was Fantastic Four in absentia before Marvel Two-In-One took over that role).
Griever feels like a lightweight version of The First Firmament, the motives are different, but the threat is the same. However The First Firmament was born out of developing a piece of old FF continuity, whereas Griever feels like a mechanism to get the team where Slott wants them.
And the character design is bit "anime" for my taste. However, the thought of fighting entropy is interesting to me.
Like many, my reading has gravitated more towards Indys these day. I haven't read Ultimates, but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the knowledge.
Like most of Al Ewing's Marvel writing, I highly recommend if you're about 40 and read too many Marvel comics in the 80s.
Between Contest of Champions, Mighty Avengers and Ultimates, Ewing was the guy who picked up the baton from Hickman after Secret Wars and tried to explain exactly what had happened when the universe was destroyed and rebuilt.
And he does from the starting point of a fact that has been long established - that this universal death and rebirth has happened before - namely the universe that Galen/Galactus came from was destroyed prior to the Marvel Universe coming into being.
But that's just the starting point and it escalates from there!
Gideon Falls #6 by Jeff Lemire. Lemire has been on fire recently, and while Black Hammer has (deservedly) gotten most of the attention, the Gideon Falls book is really good too. #6 concluded "book one", so I would expect a trade to be coming out soon for those who prefer to read that way.
This book is a departure from what Lemire usually does. It falls more into the mystery / horror realm. It's similar to some of Cullen Bunn's stuff, as a comparison. High marks!
I've been reading a lot of great #1s lately, particularly from Image. One of my favorites this month is MCMLXXV from Joe Casey and Ian MacEwan. As they describe it:
Meet Pamela Evans. Much more than a typical Manhattan cab driver, she also happens to be a badass monster-fighter who wields an enchanted tire iron. Welcome to the year of her greatest adventure.
And, as it sounds, it is a great genre-mashup period piece book. It feels like a 1970s NYC movie (only with much better special effects and budget). Really unusual but visceral and a lot of fun. I always love the energy of Joe Casey's work (Butcher Baker was another favorite of mine from a few years back). MacEwan was new to me, but he's great. Looking forward to more of these.
I finally finished the Layton JRJR Micheline iron Man Omnibus. It was great, but... Iron Man really didn't have any good supervillains did he? Whiplash, Unicorn, the Animen? That didn't hinder the story, iron Man vs. himself/shield/Roxxon/Hammer is the real story. This is definitely something to read
I finally finished the Layton JRJR Micheline iron Man Omnibus. It was great, but... Iron Man really didn't have any good supervillains did he? Whiplash, Unicorn, the Animen? That didn't hinder the story, iron Man vs. himself/shield/Roxxon/Hammer is the real story. This is definitely something to read
A lot of them fulfil the same role that Stark invented for Iron Man, employees. Be it of communist countries (pre-MLR run) or of corporate crime interests (MLR). That duality of hero and his villains is something the MCU and current Marvel comics setup of Tony Stark is Iron Man loses.
His interaction with Dr. Doom was fun, and I liked the Spymaster interactions. I think of Tony Stark) Iron Man having 3 really good villians and only one of might qualify for a supervillain Roxxon, Justin Hammer, and the Mandarin, who wasn't in this collection.
Did Byrne ever have Corporate Namor go up against Tony Stark?
His interaction with Dr. Doom was fun, and I liked the Spymaster interactions. I think of Tony Stark) Iron Man having 3 really good villians and only one of might qualify for a supervillain Roxxon, Justin Hammer, and the Mandarin, who wasn't in this collection.
Did Byrne ever have Corporate Namor go up against Tony Stark?
M&L only use Mandarin in their final arc on the second run which is basically the transition from 30's yellow peril stereotype to the more modern stereotype from Claremont & Lee's X-Men Acts of Vengeance arc.
Iron Man definitely shows up in Namor. Can't recall if he returns the favour in Byrne's Iron Man and WCA as unlike Namor I thought those were quite poor. His Iron Man felt retrograde after M&L and O'Neill - one of his attempts to return things to a "traditional" version of a comic when that was not needed. And WCA was one bad idea after another, like a Bizarro Alpha Flight.
His interaction with Dr. Doom was fun, and I liked the Spymaster interactions. I think of Tony Stark) Iron Man having 3 really good villians and only one of might qualify for a supervillain Roxxon, Justin Hammer, and the Mandarin, who wasn't in this collection.
Did Byrne ever have Corporate Namor go up against Tony Stark?
M&L only use Mandarin in their final arc on the second run which is basically the transition from 30's yellow peril stereotype to the more modern stereotype from Claremont & Lee's X-Men Acts of Vengeance arc.
Iron Man definitely shows up in Namor. Can't recall if he returns the favour in Byrne's Iron Man and WCA as unlike Namor I thought those were quite poor. His Iron Man felt retrograde after M&L and O'Neill - one of his attempts to return things to a "traditional" version of a comic when that was not needed. And WCA was one bad idea after another, like a Bizarro Alpha Flight.
Though, I'm now reading a review of the first Namor collection and it sounds hokier than I remember. Maybe it changed when Jae Lee came on board.
His interaction with Dr. Doom was fun, and I liked the Spymaster interactions. I think of Tony Stark) Iron Man having 3 really good villians and only one of might qualify for a supervillain Roxxon, Justin Hammer, and the Mandarin, who wasn't in this collection.
Did Byrne ever have Corporate Namor go up against Tony Stark?
M&L only use Mandarin in their final arc on the second run which is basically the transition from 30's yellow peril stereotype to the more modern stereotype from Claremont & Lee's X-Men Acts of Vengeance arc.
Iron Man definitely shows up in Namor. Can't recall if he returns the favour in Byrne's Iron Man and WCA as unlike Namor I thought those were quite poor. His Iron Man felt retrograde after M&L and O'Neill - one of his attempts to return things to a "traditional" version of a comic when that was not needed. And WCA was one bad idea after another, like a Bizarro Alpha Flight.
Though, I'm now reading a review of the first Namor collection and it sounds hokier than I remember. Maybe it changed when Jae Lee came on board.
From what I have read and remember of Namor it was good, but there are some silly ideas that somehow work. It's comics so you can make anything work with good enough story and art. It's a little like his Superman update only if Superman decided to use space diamonds to start capes Inc
With Iron Man done I moved on to the next Omnibus. Michelinie and Larson's Spider Man. Having read the previous omnibi of Michelinie and McFarlane Amazing Spiderman (really good) and McFarlane's Spiderman ( the art is great but the story is lacking, he did a much better version of with Spawn) I was ready for Larson (the artist I really loved on Spidey).
324, 327, 329-331 The art is good and dynamic. I really enjoy Eric's cartoony style (BTW Eric and Todd are both prime examples of why that style shouldn't be dismissed). He keeps getting better as the issues continue. The stories have been the bad parts of the 90s. The punisher story is just not good, but then magic seems to pop up out of nowhere. Felcia Hardy returns in full on crazy and Jonathan Caesar (the millionaire who kidnapped MJ) is out of jail. I'm hooked
His catoonish style is just fun on Spiderman. He draws the silliest expressions on faces and makes villians like venom even more absurd. I love the way he draws doc ock. Erik Larson might be the only guy who could follow Todd McFarlane on Spiderman.
The original 6 members of Image were so talented and young (in age and careers). It is pretty incredible.
His catoonish style is just fun on Spiderman. He draws the silliest expressions on faces and makes villians like venom even more absurd. I love the way he draws doc ock. Erik Larson might be the only guy who could follow Todd McFarlane on Spiderman.
The original 6 members of Image were so talented and young (in age and careers). It is pretty incredible.
I've always been a little disappointed in what they did with it. They all got rich... They created a bunch of IP's that they own, and in a couple of instances, ones that have lasted over the years. But nothing they created ever really rocked the world, at least not for long. No Dark Knight Returns, Hellboy, or Watchmen style classics. Spawn is *maybe* know to normies, but outside of comics circles, no one's heard of Savage Dragon. And outside of those, now one's ever heard of any of them.
I don't know... I think I just expected more at the time.
Hey now Savage dragon and Wildcats had cartoons...
Did you know Spawn has a new movie coming out? Blumhouse is putting it out so I actually have expectations that it will be good
But if you showed those things.. probably inclucing Spawn, to a normie, they wouldn't know who they were... unlike, say, TMNT from a decade earlier. Nothing they created became household names.
Batman "Rebirth" vol 7 - The Wedding. I now understand the problems readers had with the actual wedding issue. The pin-ups made it difficult to get a good rhythm and the ending was unsatisfying (which was probably the intent). However, the two story arc proceeding the wedding are fantastic!
Immortal Hulk #8 - Probably the best throwback to Marvel/Ditko horror that Ewing & Bennett have done so far.
Weapon X #25 - This series heads towards its finale (pun intended) as Sabretooth learns the truth about the limits his inversion (which have been obvious to the reader) from an old romantic rival. This has been an under-rated comic throughout its run - the key idea of Sabretooth trying to lead a superhero team full of people who aren't superheroes (and not realising how badly he's doing it) has been very effective.
X-Men Red #10 - Some great expressive art from Roge Antonio this issue. Shame this approach to the X-Men (essentially The Sisterhood of Good Mutants, with Jean Grey enacting Xavier's dream with Magneto-esque tactics) is likely going away in the upcoming relaunch, as it was genuinely refreshing.
Green Lantern #1 feels like a ’70s cop show mashed up with a ’60s western and a modern sci-fi story. It’s a really nice first issue in that it sets the tone and direction of the series and also tells a quick-paced story that isn't bogged down in exposition. The most interesting Green Lantern work I've read since Green Lantern: Mosaic.
Green Lantern #1 feels like a ’70s cop show mashed up with a ’60s western and a modern sci-fi story. It’s a really nice first issue in that it sets the tone and direction of the series and also tells a quick-paced story that isn't bogged down in exposition. The most interesting Green Lantern work I've read since Green Lantern: Mosaic.
Glad someone mentioned this as I forgot it was out this week.
For me it's the most 2000AD-y I've seen Morrison write in years. Though that may be an optical illusion caused by Liam Sharp's art.
A big part of what made it work was Liam Sharp's Hal Jordan. He captures that Jordan's a throw back to 1920s Flying Ace pulp heroes in his design and physicality.
Green Lantern #1 feels like a ’70s cop show mashed up with a ’60s western and a modern sci-fi story. It’s a really nice first issue in that it sets the tone and direction of the series and also tells a quick-paced story that isn't bogged down in exposition. The most interesting Green Lantern work I've read since Green Lantern: Mosaic.
For me it's the most 2000AD-y I've seen Morrison write in years. Though that may be an optical illusion caused by Liam Sharp's art.
I'm new to Sharp and not quite sure what to make of his work. It's attractive and repulsive, beautiful and ugly all at the same time. It created a nice tension, especially when it came to the depiction of Jordan. It's nice to have a Hal Jordan that has been relieved of all the baggage of the last few decades.
I picked up “The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn against the Devils in Suits” on a whim at my LCS today. Boy, that was a good decision. 64 page, oversized one-shot for 5.99. Art and script by Brazilian cartoonist Arabson, translation by James Robinson.
Really, well worth the cash. The art is amazing and the story is worth reading, if not super original.
I picked up “The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn against the Devils in Suits” on a whim at my LCS today. Boy, that was a good decision. 64 page, oversized one-shot for 5.99. Art and script by Brazilian cartoonist Arabson, translation by James Robinson.
Really, well worth the cash. The art is amazing and the story is worth reading, if not super original.
Just got through reading it myself, though I preordered my copy. It's a fun book. Arabson’s work is very reminiscent of that of Rafael Grampá, though a bit more open. Can't beat the price for what you get. I'll be keeping an eye out for the miniseries he and Robinson are working on.
In a grim dark sort of theme, I just finished and quite enjoyed both Infinite Dark and Outer Darkness. I think I got lucky with Outer Darkness, because I'm pretty sure that my interest was for Infinite Dark and somehow ended up ordering both. As far as the whole package goes, I think that Infinite Dark is a little stronger due to the art, but Outer Darkness has a really cool story concept going for it.
At NCCOMICON, I picked up a pile of graphic novels for 5 bucks each... all of them new.
The best one, so far was Orphans. The story is great, and the art is incredible. Really top notch, with lots of "making of" sketches and stuff to supplement it. It's an import/translation of an Italian series, but reads very much like a (good) American comic. It is a hefty tome, on nice thick (but not super glossy) paper, and retails for about $15. I can't wait to get volume 2.
Stellar - I have to admit that after issue 2 I didn't read the book. I kind I of skimmed through and studied the pages. However, that being said I sure hope Blevins does more comic work in the future. It was very nice getting reacquainted with his work.
Middlewest 1 - I think I've read this before. Or perhaps I saw the movie. I think the kid grows up to write, "I Can Only Imagine." (Spoilers)
Shadow Roads 5 - I enjoyed the story up until 5. The story could have used another issue. There's the promise of future volumes, but this arc ended so abruptly that it was very disconcerting.
Three issues into the weekly Uncanny X-Men, and I think I've clicked to its rhythm now. It's nowhere near as good as Avengers: No Surrender which had the advantage of two writers with experience with weekly comics (Waid and Ewing), but does feel like it's breaking free of trad-X-Men stories.
Of course with X-Men reboots tending to end up on the conservative side of things, I can't shake the feeling this is a last gasp of weirdness before we get a boring classic Claremont-era team again.
In the meantime I'll take an army of insane Madroxes, Legion trying to be his dad and the Four Horsemen of Salvation.
Still reading the Larson Spider man Omnibus. Aunt May must be a silver fox. The Omnibus starts with May engaged to a degenerate gambler named Nathan after a bunch of issues David Micheline was like nope not having may marry a degenerate so they kill him off. Then Willie Lumpkin starts dropping packages off at May's house.
Comments
Griever feels like a lightweight version of The First Firmament, the motives are different, but the threat is the same. However The First Firmament was born out of developing a piece of old FF continuity, whereas Griever feels like a mechanism to get the team where Slott wants them.
That being said, it was still a great comic, and I like we have a quick thinking Reed Richards who outsmarts his foes instead of a Richards who makes grand plans that fall apart. Too often people have ended up writing Richards too much like Doom.
Doom should be the guy who gets caught up in the rigidity of his thinking, Reed should be the guy whose thinking is as flexible as his body.
Like many, my reading has gravitated more towards Indys these day. I haven't read Ultimates, but it sounds interesting. Thanks for the knowledge.
Between Contest of Champions, Mighty Avengers and Ultimates, Ewing was the guy who picked up the baton from Hickman after Secret Wars and tried to explain exactly what had happened when the universe was destroyed and rebuilt.
And he does from the starting point of a fact that has been long established - that this universal death and rebirth has happened before - namely the universe that Galen/Galactus came from was destroyed prior to the Marvel Universe coming into being.
But that's just the starting point and it escalates from there!
This book is a departure from what Lemire usually does. It falls more into the mystery / horror realm. It's similar to some of Cullen Bunn's stuff, as a comparison. High marks!
And, as it sounds, it is a great genre-mashup period piece book. It feels like a 1970s NYC movie (only with much better special effects and budget). Really unusual but visceral and a lot of fun. I always love the energy of Joe Casey's work (Butcher Baker was another favorite of mine from a few years back). MacEwan was new to me, but he's great. Looking forward to more of these.
Iron Man really didn't have any good supervillains did he? Whiplash, Unicorn, the Animen? That didn't hinder the story, iron Man vs. himself/shield/Roxxon/Hammer is the real story. This is definitely something to read
Did Byrne ever have Corporate Namor go up against Tony Stark?
Iron Man definitely shows up in Namor. Can't recall if he returns the favour in Byrne's Iron Man and WCA as unlike Namor I thought those were quite poor. His Iron Man felt retrograde after M&L and O'Neill - one of his attempts to return things to a "traditional" version of a comic when that was not needed. And WCA was one bad idea after another, like a Bizarro Alpha Flight.
It's comics so you can make anything work with good enough story and art. It's a little like his Superman update only if Superman decided to use space diamonds to start capes Inc
324, 327, 329-331 The art is good and dynamic. I really enjoy Eric's cartoony style (BTW Eric and Todd are both prime examples of why that style shouldn't be dismissed). He keeps getting better as the issues continue.
The stories have been the bad parts of the 90s. The punisher story is just not good, but then magic seems to pop up out of nowhere. Felcia Hardy returns in full on crazy and Jonathan Caesar (the millionaire who kidnapped MJ) is out of jail. I'm hooked
His catoonish style is just fun on Spiderman. He draws the silliest expressions on faces and makes villians like venom even more absurd. I love the way he draws doc ock. Erik Larson might be the only guy who could follow Todd McFarlane on Spiderman.
The original 6 members of Image were so talented and young (in age and careers). It is pretty incredible.
I don't know... I think I just expected more at the time.
Did you know Spawn has a new movie coming out? Blumhouse is putting it out so I actually have expectations that it will be good
I now understand the problems readers had with the actual wedding issue. The pin-ups made it difficult to get a good rhythm and the ending was unsatisfying (which was probably the intent).
However, the two story arc proceeding the wedding are fantastic!
Weapon X #25 - This series heads towards its finale (pun intended) as Sabretooth learns the truth about the limits his inversion (which have been obvious to the reader) from an old romantic rival. This has been an under-rated comic throughout its run - the key idea of Sabretooth trying to lead a superhero team full of people who aren't superheroes (and not realising how badly he's doing it) has been very effective.
X-Men Red #10 - Some great expressive art from Roge Antonio this issue. Shame this approach to the X-Men (essentially The Sisterhood of Good Mutants, with Jean Grey enacting Xavier's dream with Magneto-esque tactics) is likely going away in the upcoming relaunch, as it was genuinely refreshing.
For me it's the most 2000AD-y I've seen Morrison write in years. Though that may be an optical illusion caused by Liam Sharp's art.
A big part of what made it work was Liam Sharp's Hal Jordan. He captures that Jordan's a throw back to 1920s Flying Ace pulp heroes in his design and physicality.
Really, well worth the cash. The art is amazing and the story is worth reading, if not super original.
The best one, so far was Orphans.
The story is great, and the art is incredible. Really top notch, with lots of "making of" sketches and stuff to supplement it. It's an import/translation of an Italian series, but reads very much like a (good) American comic. It is a hefty tome, on nice thick (but not super glossy) paper, and retails for about $15. I can't wait to get volume 2.
Middlewest 1 - I think I've read this before. Or perhaps I saw the movie. I think the kid grows up to write, "I Can Only Imagine." (Spoilers)
Shadow Roads 5 - I enjoyed the story up until 5. The story could have used another issue. There's the promise of future volumes, but this arc ended so abruptly that it was very disconcerting.
Of course with X-Men reboots tending to end up on the conservative side of things, I can't shake the feeling this is a last gasp of weirdness before we get a boring classic Claremont-era team again.
In the meantime I'll take an army of insane Madroxes, Legion trying to be his dad and the Four Horsemen of Salvation.
Aunt May must be a silver fox. The Omnibus starts with May engaged to a degenerate gambler named Nathan after a bunch of issues David Micheline was like nope not having may marry a degenerate so they kill him off. Then Willie Lumpkin starts dropping packages off at May's house.
the many loves of May Parker.