Any One Want To Talk About Comicbooks?

[Felon]

QUOTE=Villano]You forgot about the magical, time traveling Paradise Island and World War 2 Wonder Woman. And didn't he tweak Spider-Man's origin?[/quote]

I recall picking up an issue where there was some VR-induced delusion that Flash Thompson and Spidey were partners.

Of course, what can you say about a guy who says he doesn't want Jessica Alba as Sue Storm because, "Hispanic and Latino women with blonde hair look like hookers to me, no matter how 'clean' or 'cute' they are."?

I wonder if Byrne still has his "faithful fifty"? He used to pride himself on having a fan base of fifty thousand that would follow any title he wrote. Probably not a lot of bleached-blonde Hispanic women there....

I have to agree with you in regard to Marvel, they seem so clueless and they have little respect for their own characters that it’s a little disheartening... Their fix for everything is a new creative team (no problem their) and a new issue number 1!!!!!

Yep. Completely brainless move on their part.

As for DC and the whole Sue Dibny thing... I rather enjoyed that tale also but I can see where it would bother people but I think DC is on the right track for a great year.

Well, I have high hopes for Green Lantern, and will check out Villains United. Anyone know anything about Infinite Crisis other than it's (yet another) sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths?

 

[Felon]

I mean, he's 35 years old and has never been on a date, has a degree in journalism and works part time in a movie rental store, and lives for Wednesdays, when the comics arrive at the local outlet.

Sounds like you regard your friend as a bit of a loser. Has he decided this is what he wants from life? If so, he's ahead of the game. I know guys like this and I crack the occasional joke, but OTOH I also know the real losers are the guys who went out and got a boring 8-to-5 job, got shacked-up, and squirted out a few kids just because that's what guys are supposed to have accomplished by 35. While they're spending their Saturdays running around taking care of honeydo's, guys like your friend (and me) are either sleeping late or sitting around with a bowl of cereal watching cartoons. 'Nuff said.

However, I do take your point about people are who are so insular that they don't pay any attention to the comfort levels of people around them. He does seem like he needs somebody to connect with. Wonder if he's heard of the Internet?

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Sounds like you regard your friend as a bit of a loser. Has he decided this is what he wants from life?

No, it's not what he wants. But he so totally won't do anything about it. He used to be a newspaper reporter. In fact, he won several awards for his reporting. When he was fired (and to this day we don't really know why) he spent the next 2 1/2 years not even looking for a job, letting his mom support him. Finally, a friend who managed a video store gave him a "mercy job". He applies for jobs all the time, but has yet to get a better one.

Regarding his dating life, he has on more than one occasion made comments about wanting to settle down and get married. But every time he's introduced to a woman, after 20 minutes of his giggling and hand wringing over J. Michael Strazynski's (sp?) latest underwear change, they practically run screaming away.

He's not really shy, nor is he physically repulsive (by most of western culture's standards..y'know..bathing, etc.) I dunno...it's hard to explain. He's just so wrapped up in his own private Idaho that stepping outside that zone is incomprehensible to him. Heck, he maybe obssessive-compulsive about some things. He's always wanting something better than his current situation, but if we try to help him out by suggesting things he might do, it's like he never even hears it. If he doesn't think of it himself, it doesn't happen. And he doesn't think of it himself.

And yup, he's heard of the internet. That's how he keeps us in the know about Strazynski's cats; whether we care or not.

I actually like the guy a lot, and wish he'd step out and see what else the world has to offer.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Well, I have high hopes for Green Lantern, and will check out Villains United. Anyone know anything about Infinite Crisis other than it's (yet another) sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Only that they have some very great talented people behind it... Johns is great, I've followed Rucka since his run on detective, Gail Simons is also one of my favorites and my wife reads her work on Birds of Prey. (As do I, though we’re both behind a few issues now.)

It looks really good.

Marvel on the other hand their "House of M" seems like a complete waste of space... I'm skipping it.

 

[Felon]

Oh, then he's in a hell of his own making. That's different.

So, who is this J. Michael whatever guy? What book does he do?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Manga is the way I go these days. Berserk, Dragonball Z (I'm weak I admit it), Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Ragnarok, Dragon Arms, and a few others.

For comics, tpb is the way to go. I've read Y, Preacher, and a ton of others. Most of 'em have convinced me that it's better that they stay on the shelves but I still do buy some, usually non-comic book based like Star Wars (Crimson Empire, Dark Empire, etc...) and others are okay (Supergirl's return to the DC setting when last I checked we already had a Supergirl for example....)

 

[Felon]

Is there anything going on in comics today that would change my mind about this? I've basically only been collecting manga translations and finite series as a result of this problem.

Well, there is the aforementioned "ultimate" line of comics, which re-invents Marvel characters from square one. No backstory baggage there.

Be warned though, the "ultimate" version of the Avengers is called simply "The Ultimates" and I found it to be a very low payoff for two-bucks-and-change considering that the writer Marc Millar's big vision was "what if we formed a dream-team superhero group and then they had nobody to fight, except maybe each other?".

That's the big hurdle comics need to overcome IMO. They need to inject a healthy dose of action into the stories. Don't they get it? It's fun watching two characters pit their superpowers against each other. I'm probably the only guy who doesn't like seeing Grant Morrison write books for powerhouses like the JLA and X-Men, because he almost always does an end run around the action scenes. Either the fight starts and he cuts away to another scene and we don't see the combatants until one is laid out, or--his usual preferrence--there is no fight at all because a character "cheats", pulling some trick that prematurely drops the would-be sparring partner in his tracks (his favorite chestnut is having telepaths shut down people's brains).

Morrison fans love the cheating scenes, but it's like I said in another thread, no matter how much you love a magician's act, performing the same trick over and over wears the illusion thin.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Oh, then he's in a hell of his own making. That's different.

So, who is this J. Michael whatever guy? What book does he do?

He's probably best known as a writer for Babylon 5. I think he's writing (or has recently written) Spiderman and some other Marvel titles.

I just happen to have a link my friend sent me earlier. Enjoy.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0833089/

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

He's probably best known as a writer for Babylon 5. I think he's writing (or has recently written) Spiderman and some other Marvel titles.

He does write Amazing Spiderman, Supreme Powers, and he will be writing Fantastic Four. I would say Straczynski is better know for his Joe Comics imprint through Top Cow/Image with his biggest/best creation called "Rising Stars" and is probably one of the best stories I have ever read… and I don’t mean in just comics.

If you haven’t read it, do, and be happy you’re not waiting 4 months in between issues.

 

[jasamcarl]

I dropped out of comics way back in the early 90s, but decided to go retro last year and on the basis of some online reviews ordered a few trades of Morrison's New X-Men. I dropped out after getting through them and the first of Whedon's Astonishing run, but I can say that the 'core' X-Men titles are better than they have been since atleast the early 80s, and probably quite a bit better than the overwhelming majority of Claremont's stuff.

Some fanboys apparently didn't like New X-Men because of its disregard for continuity and the sudden shift in tone. I see both of those as advantages. Doing so allowed him to write tight but subversive superhero stories that focused on the core themes of the X-men, which should always be more important than the mostly lame history of the characters themselves.

Astonishing is more basic, but better written than anything in my memory. It's not as interesting as Morrison, but both the art and pacing are more consistent, though i'm only going on six issues. Think X-Men meets first three seasons of Buffy and you have a good idea of the tone. There is some background social commentary, but it is mostly perky dialogue and intentionally gratuitous action sequences that are there just because this is a superhero comic. The fact that Whedon knows they are gratuitous makes them more fun than annoying. The art is fantastic; 'realistic' but perfectly suitable to kinetic, cartoonish action. For the first time, you can see why characters in the book as oppossed to weird fanboys would find Kitty Pryde attractive.

The other X titles I hear are aweful, and Claremont is apparently up to his old, dumb tricks in his books. The guy defined my idea of the X-Men (now with a bit of Morrison's tweaking), but now he is just tired.