Episode 1425 Talkback: Off the Rack: Batman Black & White #1 and X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1

Pants

Off the Racks goes Off the Reservation this month, thanks to the delayed release of one of our selections. First, we bring you our regularly scheduled reviews of Batman: Black & White #1 and X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1; then, stay tuned for bonus coverage of The Star Wars #1, Thor: God of Thunder #13, Daredevil #31, Farlaine the Goblin #1, and the civil-rights-themed graphic novel March (Book One). (1:16:53)

Listen here.

bralinator

WOw @Pants! You guys must never leave the studio! Will be listening tonight :)

JDick

I noticed that General Skywalker kind of looks like a more svelte George Lucas.

nweathington

It’s funny you kept mentioning Darwyn Cooke when describing Michael Cho’s work. They used to hang out together quite a bit (along with Cameron Stewart and a few others) back when Darwyn was just starting out in comics, and they share quite a few influences. They were all based in Toronto at that point (Cho is still there). Cho is quite good, and I wish he did more comic book work.

I'll wait and the get Batman: Black & White when it gets collected, and I'll put it on the shelf with the first two oversized volumes (they'd better print this one oversized too). The first two volumes were fantastic, and well worth seeking out—especially Bruce Timm’s story and Brian Bolland’s story. By the way, a bunch of those stories were turned into motion comics.

I haven't read March yet, but it's on my shelf. I have a feeling it'll be winning all the awards this year.

BionicDave

nweathington said:

The first two volumes were fantastic, and well worth seeking out—especially Bruce Timm’s story and Brian Bolland’s story. By the way, a bunch of those stories were turned into motion comics...

Also, I just picked up 5 previous Batman: Black & White stories for FREE off comiXology, go check, they might still be up for grabs. :)

I am also going to wait these new ones out, but I'll get them when I hit a meager week and have a few bucks to spare.

fredzilla

Here's a link to those FREE comiXology issues...



iTunes has Batman: Black & White as a motion comic for $5 a collection (there's only two right now). Not a big fan of motion comics, but I think it works for these. It must be the noir-ish ness of it that works.
http://youtu.be/7F3lKiwNOKY

Mr_Cosmic

If you're reading All New X-Men you should be reading Uncanny as well. In fact I'd say it's the better of the two. While All New is focusing on the original X-Men the Uncanny book is dealing with...get this...all new X-Men! Scott's group is tracking down new mutants and helping them to use their powers. Some are very useful like the kid who healed young Scott in Battle for the Atom....while others are not quite as helpful...like the kid who shoots beach ball sized gold orbs out of his body. Anyways, good stuff and worth reading to get the whole All New/Uncanny story.

The Star Wars was great and that really surprised me.

Farlaine the Goblin was a lot of fun. The large map with all the Xs on it really makes me wonder what sort of adventures he had traveling through the strange lands.

Corwin

GOLDBALLS!!!
LOL I think Goldballs will come into his own. I'm curious how his powers will "mature".

Corwin

Unfortunatley @Murd I think Marvel is going to be throwing the rules of space/time out the window for the time being...we'll probably be getting a lot more of it.

gothamkid

Corwin said:

Unfortunatley @Murd I think Marvel is going to be throwing the rules of space/time out the window for the time being...we'll probably be getting a lot more of it.

That was one of the two sticking points I had with the geeks this episode: Didn't like Age of Ultron? Fair enough, neither did I. Like old Marvel time travel stories? I do to. But last I checked, whether for Bendis or anyone else, Marvel is free to tell the stories they think will sale, and if that means changing the 30 year-old editorial mandate from a deceased editor on the rules of time travel, so be it. Also, how is too many paradoxes in too short of a time for the continuum to correct any worse storyline-wise than a time-travel event occuring at the same moment as a "once in a never" alignment or what ever happened with the Makkari crsytal to make Age of Apocalypse "real"?

My second bone of contention is I would support the argument that a 15 part story should have been a 13 part story, though I don't feel like that can be judged until its conclusion. Calling it a cash-grab because its in a bookend and not the regular title I think is a spurious argument unless you are supposing that the story would have codensed by two issues instead of taking up two additional issuse of All-New X-Men.

random73

Mr_Cosmic said:

If you're reading All New X-Men you should be reading Uncanny as well. In fact I'd say it's the better of the two. While All New is focusing on the original X-Men the Uncanny book is dealing with...get this...all new X-Men! Scott's group is tracking down new mutants and helping them to use their powers. Some are very useful like the kid who healed young Scott in Battle for the Atom....while others are not quite as helpful...like the kid who shoots beach ball sized gold orbs out of his body. Anyways, good stuff and worth reading to get the whole All New/Uncanny story.

The Star Wars was great and that really surprised me.

Farlaine the Goblin was a lot of fun. The large map with all the Xs on it really makes me wonder what sort of adventures he had traveling through the strange lands.

agree. Uncanny & All New together make for soem real fun storytelling. I'm digging them both.

Elsiebub

The event-ending Battle of the Atom #2 will have Esad Ribic art, so no that will not be a money-grab.

Not that I really thought the opening issue was anyway. I guess it could have been part of a regular series, but I think that would have been six of one, half a dozen of the other. Most of these series have been coming out every other week, but while the event is going on they're monthly. Add in the BotA #1 and #2 bookends, and Marvel is still actually EASING UP on the X-book scheduling while the event is going on. As far as content went, I don't see much more decompression than Bendis has been giving us all along in All-New X-Men. I thought it was fine. But then again I've really been enjoying the X-titles this year anyway, more than I have since I was a kid. So... I guess people's mileage varies.

alienal

Slowly catching up here: Batman Black & White: ah, BORROW for me. Like SHANE I didn't really like the Neal Adams (I didn't even like his pencils this time out) story and like Pants said it was altogether a kind of mixed back for me. I did like the 1st story and the Harley/Ivy story, but that's it, I think.
X-Men- Battle of the Atom #1: BUY! (Since I already bought it?) But I did enjoy it and the subsequent 4 issues of the related titles. Cash grab? Ah, I suppose you could say that but it's only 2 extra issues and it's really nothing any different that what Forever Evil is doing right now or past Marvel events. I also think that the very appearances that Murd/Jamie mention the new Zorn, and the Phoenix, Arizona villain (Phoenix, hmm...) AND the Future X-Men qualify this issue as being something special! However, I do agree with Murd about the time paradox-thing. I also agree with terrible art concerning Cyclops head flying off. Not such a good image. BUT... Pants brought up another good point about this issue which is that it is bringing (almost) all the X-books together for the anniversary! So, I think to kick-off the anniversary celebration justifies having a first bookend issue, the later one and the extra $7.98.
The Star Wars: (What was Jamie dissin' Star Wars so much for?) It would be a BUY for me too, but like Shane I didn't order any other issues. If I see in my comic shop in Kobe, I'd probably buy additional issues.