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Off the Racks: All-New Invaders #1, Detective Comics #27, and ElfQuest: The Final Quest #1
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
In this, Chris Eberle's first appearance in an 'OTR' episode, Chris earns his Recent Release Reviewer's credentials as we dissect the nostalgic All-New Invaders from Marvel; the gigantic Detective Comics (Vol. 2) #27 from DC; and the esoteric ElfQuest: The Final Quest from Dark Horse. Also, a few brief remarks about Paul Cornell's new Wolverine series and the new Ms. Marvel #1. (1:36:04)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
I enjoyed 'Tec #27 more than most of you guys and feel that its coverprice was justified. I'm pretty sure it was more than twice the page-count of standard $4 DC Comics these days, and probably nearly FOUR times the page count of standard $4 Marvel Comics, and yet it "only" cost $7.99 and had a nice cover and binding. I'm possibly prejudiced because I used LCS store credit to buy it, but I still feel that it was a great package, despite being somewhat uneven. The Tomasi story was definitely the best. And I actually LIKED the Gothtopia lead-in; I haven't been reading Detective but I will probably seek out the next few issues of this one storyline being done by Layman and Fabok. There were nitpicks one could give to many of the stories--and you guys did a good job of listing them--but I certainly think this issue was a cut or two (or three) above most anniversary issues. My only real disappointment was Snyder's futuristic vignette, which seemed like a hodgepodge of Paul Pope's "Year 100" and the last story Morrison did in Batman #700. Not a bad little story here, but I expected a bit more.
Oh, the secret to Francavilla's story is that the boy is a young James Gordon Jr. Batman saved him once in "Year One" and he's saving him again now. But James Jr. will go on to become a fascinating villain in "The Black Mirror" storyline from a few years ago, to which Francavilla contributed. (Unfortunately, by the END of "Black Mirror" James Jr. degenerated into a generic serial killer. But for a while I think he had a lot of potential as a villain!)
Re: Fang
We've seen the Imperial Guard replace it's members with near duplicates before. Hobgoblin, Neutron, Smasher, etc have met their demise only to later be replaced.
In fact one membership list I've seen lists Fang I-V!
M.
Basically back in WWII a British Division of the Weapon Plus program consisting of scientists named Father, Mother and Brother tried to reproduce the creation of Jim Hammond. After meeting with failure Father resorted to Magic using the Orb of Necromancy to give life to their failures. (We find out that Father had some ties to Otherworld (as in Captain Britain)and somehow stole or hid the Orb in another dimension...I forget exactly how it goes.)
So Father, Mother and Brother have a falling out about what to do next and Mother frees the synthezoids who escape into the world and eventually breed with humans. (Thus homo synthezoid aka the Decendents). Father goes on to work with the Weapon Plus Program and eventually gathers the Decendents into an army. He infects the world with nanotechnology which threatens to convert humanity into human/machine hybrids making the world into the perfect Decendent Utopia. It all comes down to Hammond who has to choose which species lives and which dies. He destroys the Orb of Necromancy committing genocide and wiping out all the Decendents whom he felt a kinship and originally sided with. Shaken he walks away from the Secret Avengers to find seclusion. Before dying Father says that one Decendent has managed to survive.
Mother is believed to be the old woman often seen with Fantomex. Whom he calls Mother.
Brother is believed to be either the Grandfather or Father of Brian (Captain Britain) Braddock, Betsy (Psylocke) Braddock and Jamie Braddock.
Imperial Guard - in Hickman's Avengers we learn that the Imperial Guard literally has training schools of Guardsmen who will eventually graduate to the Imperial Guard when their namesake is deceased. This is where we get the Smasher who is currently on the Avengers. Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men Annual #1 follows up with Kid Gladiator in this school but unfortunately he's the last Strongtonain (?) so he's the only Gladiator in training.
And yeah, the Guardsmen-in-training are called "Subguardians" until they get assigned to the Guard proper where they get promoted to "Superguardian" status.
Thanks. I enjoy your show very much. Very informative / entertaining.
http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-1761.php
http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-1645.php
http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/search.php?search=spotlight
I'm hoping for a Marvel Cosmic Spotlight soon...
I was asking for any plans they have to do other ones.
Expect the first in a series of Fantastic Four Spotlights to appear very soon. Daredevil to follow, in celebration of that character's fiftieth anniversary.
Anyone else think Jim Hammond jumped the gun just a bit in the scene where he ends up burning down the garage where he worked? No attempt to try and rescue/resuscitate your boss, Jimmy boy? Really? None? You're not gonna even try? *sigh*
I did like the way Hammond was handled though. You could really get a sense of his lack of confidence / vulnerability as a superhero and how much he preferred just trying to be "human."
Can't decide if Major Liberty was just a "red shirt" (the Star Trek kind btw, as opposed to the 2nd year freshman NCAA types) or if he's going to end up playing some further role? Seemed odd to give him that much attention just to bump him off like that.
I own the first 20+ issues or so of the original 1970's Invaders from when I was a kid. I want to say the series even started off with the Nazis gaining control of some 2nd rate Norse Gods? I distinctly recall one of them was named Donar and was supposed to be a Thor knockoff. Or actually, I want to say maybe they were aliens who the Nazis brainwashed into thinking they were Norse Gods? Eh, I can't remember. Man, it sucks to get old!
And on one final note, what a BS move by the Kree in kidnapping/torturing Namor, not to mention burning Hammond's town down, after we saved their butts in the Infinity saga. Ungrateful bastards.
And I'm with ya, btw ... a "Marvel Cosmic" spotlight would definitely be on my wishlist.
I read All-New Invaders #1 and Detective Comics #27. I absolutely loved All-New Invaders. I can definitely see Murd's point of giving some more focus to the other characters since they are the more known characters to draw readers in, but much like Shane, I was happy to read about the Golden Age Human Torch because I know very little about him. I loved the mix of cosmic with World War II heroes. I feel like we get this grand story that still focuses on the characters. I really liked the short story for All-New Invaders that we got in Marvel Now Point One (in fact it was one of the few stories I actually liked a lot in that issue). I loved the art as well. This was a buy for me.
I enjoyed Detective Comics #27 and glad I read it. I would give it a strong borrow. I loved the first story and the Gothtopia story. I won't be getting all of the crossover titles (just the titles I get anyways), but I like this world that was created. I am disregarding the first story as anything solid for the new 52 for the origin of the Joker since we pretty much got his new origin in Zero Year. Then again, this could play into the whole thought that we never know which origin is his real origin. It took nothing away from my enjoyment of the story. I really liked the Snyder and Murphy story as a unique tale. The other stories were fun and enjoyable overall. I don't think I had any that I wish I had not read. I agree that starting with the Syndicate story was the way to go.
As far as the story by Francavilla I believe was possibly a call back to the Snyder story in Detective comics that ended Detective Comics in the old DC, Black Mirror, and still seems to be part of continuity. I am willing to put money down that the son at the end is James Gordon Jr. I would have to go back to those stories to see if Batman saved him once in that story or in one of the later stories featuring him as a small boy. I think it was meant as a nod where if Batman had not saved James Jr. there may not have been some of the problems from this character later in years (a different take on the whole, if you could eliminate Hitler as a child to avoid the later tragedy he brings, except this one showing Batman saving without knowing what comes later because of the save). Hope that clears it up....if I'm right about that being what it was.
I don't know if there's any explanation in that book (I have it, but have yet to read it), but I wonder if they did offer an introduction there and felt there was no need to do it here. Which does not absolve the Pinis or Dark Horse for this poorly thought-out decision. It's too bad - sounds like a missed opportunity for a series that I, too, have enjoyed.
chris
ALL NEW-INVADERS#1: BORROW for me, too. I guess I'm with Murd and Chris E's assessment in that the writing was a bit off and the book overall didn't grab me enough to justify the 3.99 price tag.
DETECTIVE #27: BORROW...I didn't find any fault with the price in that there was a lot of bang for my buck. However, since I wasn't getting Detective regularly anyway, I wouldn't have bought this unless CGS was also reading it.
ELFQUEST: THE FINAL QUEST #1: BORROW...I thought the book was quite charming and I really liked the back matter pages a lot! I'm just not very invested in this quest so it was a one time buy for me. And since I really didn't know what was going on, it was quite difficult to get into it.
Wow, 3 borrows...not a good month for books that I don't usually buy. ;)