Comic Book Discussion

[Dante]

Red Lanterns 3 Cover

 

Eh okay.

 

 

Batgirl #24: the Director’s Cut by Bryan Q. Miller

 

So many great DC comics ending this week because of the reboot.

Edited August 11, 2011 by Dante
Automerged Doublepost

[Happenstance]

Read Ultimate Fallout #5 earlier, made me think of Ultimates 3 which is never a good thing

[Daft]

It is upto #8 and is out in 24th August. Inc #9 and #10 have merged into over-sized one-shot titled "Batman Incorporated: Leviathon Strikes which is going to be release between September - October.

 

Thanks very much!!

[gmac]

sweet, Paul Cornell is going to be signing at my local Forbidden Planet in September

 

they had Grant Morrison last month and Marcos Martin a while back but missed those

 

think I might pop along

[ReZourceman]

I have a few bits of epic insider DC info! I will post as not "obvious" such as below, as the person who bought/brought me this information signed a NDA. :p

 

J S A January by Ge off Jo hns. :p Is a boring piece.

 

Steph Brown is it>? That Batgirl. Ma rch ish. Big plans.

 

Ba tmanINC will continue in a series of one shots in the new year.

 

---------------

 

Fear Itself #5 was FUCKING awesome IMHO. Shits soooooo much on Flashitpoint.

[Happenstance]

My only complaints about Fear Itself would be the usual one about them writing it for the trade but also that the "Fear" thats supposed to be happening over the entire planet hasnt really been shown all that well, best ive seen it was the Spider-Man spin offs. Also I dont think enough time has been spent with the bad guy, he basically means nothing to me in this.

 

Theres also something IGN said in their review which I agreed with:

 

The ending with Cap saying theyre going to lose and Spidey leaving just doesnt ring true. Theyve faced much worse odds than this before. If its the effects of the fear talking then thats another reason it should have been shown more.

 

 

Also, for anyone who gets Marvel HCs or trades. Bleeding Cool have just posted this list that Marvel released of HCs/TPBs that will be going out of print soon so if there are any you want or need, now will be the best time to order:

 

Hardcovers:

 

Avengers Assemble Vol 4 and 5

 

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes 2

 

Captain America: The Chosen

 

Death Of Captain America Vol 2 and 3

 

Daredevil: Guardian Devil 10th Anniversary

 

Eternals By Neil Gaiman (Direct Market)

 

Fantastic Four: The End

 

Fantastic Four: Worlds Greatest

 

Mystic Arcana

 

Marvel Mythos

 

New Avengers Vol 7, 8, 9, Illuminati

 

Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe, Vols 1-5

 

Omega The Unknown

 

Onslaught Reborn

 

Power Pack: the Kids Are Alright

 

Punisher War Journal Vol 4

 

Runaways: Dead End Kids and Pride & Joy

 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Vol 1 and 2, One More Day

 

Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt

 

Spider-Man: With Great Power

 

Stan Lee Meets The Marvel Universe

 

Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol 1, 2, 4

 

Ultimate Iron Man 2

 

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 9

 

Ultimate X-Men Vol 7 and 8

 

Ultimates 3: Who Killed Scarlet Witch?

 

Uncanny X-Men: Rise & Fall Of The Shi’Ar Empire

 

Wolverine Dangerous Games

 

X-Factor: The Only Game In Town

 

X-Men: Endangered Species and Supernovas

 

Trade paperbacks

 

Annihilation: Conquest Vol 1

 

Avengers: Serpent Crown Vol 1

 

Captain America & The Falcon: Secret Empire, Nomad, The Swine

 

Captain America By Kirby Bicentennial Battles

 

Captain America: Red, White & Blue

 

Champions Classic Vol 1 and 2

 

Dead Of Night

 

Earth X Trilogy Companion

 

Excalibur Classic Vol 1, 2, 3, 5

 

Exiles Vol 9

 

Fantastic For Visionaries: Perez Vol 1 and 2, Simonson Vol 1 and 2

 

Hedge Knight 2: Sworn Sword

 

Hulk Vs The Marvel Universe

 

Incredible Hercules: Against The World

 

Iron Man: Haunted

 

Iron Manual

 

Marvel Romance

 

Moon Knight Vol 1 and 2

 

Ms Marvel Vol 2

 

New Warriors Vol 2

 

Nova Vol 1 and 2

 

Omega The Unknown Classic

 

Penance: Relentless

 

Punisher Presents: Barracuda MAX

 

Punisher War Journal Vol 3

 

Spider-Man And Fantastic Four: Silver Rage

 

Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Back In Black

 

Spiderman: Saga Of The Sandman

 

Squadron Supreme: Death Of A Universe

 

Star Brand Classic Vol 1

 

Sub Mariner: Revolution

 

Thunderbolts Vol 2

 

Wolverine Classic Vol 2

 

Wolverine First Class: The Rookie

 

X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David Vol 1,2 and 3

 

X-Men First Class: Band Of Brothers, Mutant Mayhem and Tomorrow’s Brightest.

[Dan_Dare]

So the next Avengers thing post FI is going to be an Avengers War featuring:

 

HAMMER, which has made a comeback in New Avengers but will expand to encompass Hydra,The Hand and a new team of Dark Avengers. Also, Wonder Man with his Revengers (not HAMMER linked obv)

 

Sounds absolutely sick.

 

[Paj!]

I have a few bits of epic insider DC info! I will post as not "obvious" such as below, as the person who bought/brought me this information signed a NDA. :p

 

J S A January by Ge off Jo hns. :p Is a boring piece.

 

Steph Brown is it>? That Batgirl. Ma rch ish. Big plans.

 

Ba tmanINC will continue in a series of one shots in the new year.

 

--------

 

I had to sign an NDA the other day too. It was cool. I felt important.

 

Gail Simone told me on twitter in a vague/obvious way that Steph would be involved in some way.

 

I think we already knew about Batman Inc..?

 

Read Ultimate Fallout #5 earlier, made me think of Ultimates 3 which is never a good thing

 

What part? The

'incest' bit? I loved that. Pietro/Wanda are such lulz.

 

 

I'm quite looking foward to this new Ultimate relaunch...not sold on the need for a new Spidey, but why not?

[Dante]

Updated GL: New Guardians cover #1:

[ReZourceman]

Ha, cool cover.

 

My only complaints about Fear Itself would be the usual one about them writing it for the trade but also that the "Fear" thats supposed to be happening over the entire planet hasnt really been shown all that well, best ive seen it was the Spider-Man spin offs. Also I dont think enough time has been spent with the bad guy, he basically means nothing to me in this.

 

Theres also something IGN said in their review which I agreed with:

 

The ending with Cap saying theyre going to lose and Spidey leaving just doesnt ring true. Theyve faced much worse odds than this before. If its the effects of the fear talking then thats another reason it should have been shown more.

 

I don't think I really agree about the writing for trade. I mean...its a limited story so its bound to have slower issues, but this one was awesome, loads happened, nice development. Didn't feel like a trade fill issue/.

 

Also when have they been in as bad a way as this? Hulk and Thing (were) against them and two of their heaviest hitters. Thor just got owned and is now out of play (temporarily at least), they've had casualties, and Iron Man is elsewhere. So half of the heavy hitters are out of play, the Avengers Tower is down and the supes are spread thin over different continents whilst New York is a crumbling and smoking mess.

 

I can't recall when they've been as fucked.

[Happenstance]

The two examples IGN used were Kree/Skrull War and Infinity Gauntlet storylines but I think you could throw in any Galactus storyline and Secret Invasion (not for what we were shown as that just never really worked but for the actual invasion and amount of Skrulls attacking etc)

[ReZourceman]

Just read the IGN review and it is laughably bad. I couldn't disagree more with every single one of their points.

 

Particularly laughable was something along the lines of "Fraction continues to give more focus on Tony Stark in the Invincible Iron Man book rather than in Fear Itself"

 

Lol.

 

http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/118/1187306p1.html

[Happenstance]

Well I prefer their reviews. They take a more critical view which I appreciate and a lot of the time agree with. Its not laughably bad at all, its just not the same as yours.

[Dan_Dare]

I'm enjoying Fear Itself but, as per, I'm actually looking forward to what happens next in Thor, Captain America and the Avengers line. Avengers just seems fucking amazing. There's an interesting teaser image from Marvel too with a new God of thunder pictured who's actually Thor's Celtic counterpart so it'll be interesting to see what that means.

 

X-Men looks set for a major switch up too with Schism and the conclusion of Children's Crusade in the next couple of months. Personally I think the Five Lights story hasn't moved them on enough so here's hoping Wanda reverses House of M somewhat and we get back to what X-Men is really about.

 

Exciting times.

[Paj!]

I haven't been reading Generation Hope at all, but the 5 lights feels like a bit of fizzled story, potential wise. And they just seem to be cluttering the X-Men universe in which established characters aren't getting enough page time as it is.

[Happenstance]

The Hope and 5 lights storyline really does seem to have just fallen to the side with no real progression or point. Kind of annoying considering all the build up it had from Messiah Complex all the way up to Second Coming.

[Dan_Dare]

On the other hand, Aaron has used Idie (yeah?) brilliantly in Schism so far...They're good characters, but their arrival hasn't had the impact that was promised. Considering that Hope went all Phoenix Raptor and shit, which is probably the most potent visual in X-Men history, it's not come to much at all.

[Happenstance]

Idie is Wolverines new project right? If so I don't think she's been used well at all in Schism, it's felt very forced like they just want Wolverine to have yet another teenage girl to mentor.

[Paj!]

I'd rather she just went all phoenix-y, and then mutants started to (re)gain their powers, or even...like...just that the 'x-gene' was reinstated, but the X-Men didn't have to deal with it until people's powers emerged. There's previous generations of New X-Men currently being ignored, there's no need to focus on yet another. New Mutants have their series which is a good thing (but I don't read it, but plan to I guess), but Gen X are nowhere - Jubilee is a vampire after years of obscurity, Chamber got his..chamber back in Age of X and Husk had one mission a few years ago in Carey's series (he's good about using unused characters). Think the rest are all dead. Then all the student X-Men, who of them all only Pixie is ever used properly.

 

Just seems silly. Also the tendency to use the same cast in all the satellite books liek Astonishing and Adjectiveless. I'm not gonna read them anymore don't think.

 

And what abotu Armour? Whedon built her up well and she was used decently by Ellis after him but everyone else seems to forget she exists. Pixie is the new Armour.

[Daft]

If anyone is interested Supergods is worth a read. Grant Morrison is pretty interesting/quirky/smart and ever so slightly full of himself and punchable (mostly in a good way). He sounds like he'd be a lot of fun down the pub.

[Paj!]

If anyone is interested Supergods is worth a read. Grant Morrison is pretty interesting/quirky/smart and ever so slightly full of himself and punchable (mostly in a good way). He sounds like he'd be a lot of fun down the pub.

 

Considering I love him and going to see him talk in promotion of it, I haven't read it yet.

 

I kinda already know what it's about having read/studied/based my life on his works.

[Happenstance]

My Iron Man blu ray turned up today so I'm just watching it. God damn it I need more movies in this Marvel universe to hurry up and come out, I just love them. Its reminded me just how awesome The Avengers movie is gonna be.

 

Do we know which other characters Marvel still have the rights to that haven't already been announced?

[Daft]

Considering I love him and going to see him talk in promotion of it, I haven't read it yet.

 

I kinda already know what it's about having read/studied/based my life on his works.

 

Last week I was camping with Rufus who does T ank Girl now and he was telling me about this time when Morrison massively shat his pants on a flight and din't notice until he got to his hotel room because he was so off his head. Sounds like a laugh.

 

Also, I really want to go to the San Diego ComiCon one year.

[ReZourceman]

Well I prefer their reviews. They take a more critical view which I appreciate and a lot of the time agree with. Its not laughably bad at all, its just not the same as yours.

 

Well I disagree, I think it is laughably bad in the sense that I can't understand what they're talking about, what they could be referring to and that some things that flat out got wrong;

 

(Spoilers ahead)

 

The fifth chapter in a seven or eight-issue event book tends to be the most boring, as the story is usually in the midst of transitioning between acts. Civil War #5 was particularly dull and uneventful. Fear Itself #5 doesn't necessarily meet with the same pitfall. This is probably the most action-packed installment yet. Unfortunately, the conflict remains as emotionally hollow as ever.

 

The showpiece this month is the epic brawl between Thor and the Worthy-possessed Hulk and Thing. The fight is a grim counterpoint to the scene featuring the trio in Fantastic Four #588. It's also a great deal of fun to watch as it unfolds across numerous pages. Thor puts up a hell of a fight despite being dangerously outmatched, and the brawl merely ends in a stalemate as might be expected. If certain issues of Fear Itself were lacking in terms of action, this issue goes a long way towards making up for it.

 

Stalemate? Hulk gets thrown into space and The Thing is effectively killed. That is not a stalemate.

 

These pages are where Stuart Immonen and friends shine best. Immonen delivers a brutal sequence of panels where every hit is felt and where the choreography is far more ambitious than "punch, doge, repeat." The generally high level of detail falls a bit in isolated cases, but regardless, this is one of the more visually arresting chapters of Fear Itself.

 

Unfortunately, there isn't much else at play in issue #5 that proves particularly memorable. Tony Stark's palaver with Odin is engaging and dramatically written, but not as heavy a focus as it should be. Here is the lone hero who seems affected by Fear Itself on a profound and emotional level. Tony's portion of the story barely advances beyond where it was in issue #4, and Matt Fraction seems to again be counting on Invincible Iron Man to give the character the space he needs.

 

Not a heavy focus on a character in a universe-wide crossover. He had plenty of "screen time", and then they go on to say that he counts on Iron Man's own book to give the character the space he needs.....gee, no fucking shit. :/

Meanwhile, the pages focused on the Avengers are just downright dull. Steve Rogers' return as Captain America continues to unfold with little fanfare or emotion.

 

Little fanfare? Its a warzone, everyone is scrambling around. There isn't time to go "Oh look, Steve put his old costume on". I don't get this criticism at all.

 

Steve's portrayal shows nothing of the torment over Bucky's death or the general desperation of his situation.

 

He is a soldier in a war......mourning time comes later, and its not as if he has been completely emotionless, as is shown in Immonen's great facial work.

 

He seems simply resigned to failure. Nothing in the scope or scale of this event is yet able to outclass classic conflicts like the Kree/Skrull War or Infinity Gauntlet, so why do heroes like Cap and Spider-Man act as if the end of the world has already arrived?

 

Already covered this above, but I will go deeper. Infinity Gauntlet - wasn't that just Thanos? Everyone vs one guy, the threat is immediate and single, there is no time to simply back down. SI and Kree Skrull war - I wouldn't say we saw more destruction or desperation in those! Fear Itself started with riots, then full scale war and invasion, the blowing up of the White House and D.C., the falling of the Avengers Tower and New York alight with smoke and fire.....now.....there wasn't anything in either of the Skrull centric stories that was anywhere near this symbolic and on top of all of that, as I said above not only is there a god-like new threat - Serpent, but several villains have been elevated to epic status, and then the heroes have had casualties, lost some heroes to other places/dealing with other situations AND had some heroes possessed into evilness. I think the "Fear" part of Fear Itself shines massively throughout all of the tie ins and the main book itself.

 

As usual, the conflict lacks that greater sense of context it really needs to function. A few panels showcase some speechless, innocent bystanders cowering in the background, but that real, palpable sense of fear is still absent. Fear Itself continues to offer up some cool beats, but nothing to truly set the conflict apart from what has come before.

 

Apart from everything I listed above. :/

 

Fear Itself as it stands doesn't operate as a proper metaphor for our times like Civil War did. I wish it did, and that the worst Western Civilization had to worry about these days was big people whacking each other with hammers in the streets.

 

Ha! Whut. Not every comic needs to be a metaphor or analogy for real life. This is comic books, super heroes and escapism! If you want real world similies then there are plenty of other books to choose from. Seriously I don't see why this is a remotely valid comment.

 

I truly hope that these last two issues will finally achieve that deeper emotional connection that has only been sporadically apparent across Fear Itself and its tie-ins.

 

Meh. Maybe this person isn't reading the right tie ins. Specifically Avengers Academy, Secret Avengers (Hell there is a real world metaphor for this person!) and Avengers all spring to mind. I mean....just....what?

 

So thats why I think its laughably bad and not just simply a difference of opinion.

 

My Iron Man blu ray turned up today so I'm just watching it. God damn it I need more movies in this Marvel universe to hurry up and come out, I just love them. Its reminded me just how awesome The Avengers movie is gonna be.

 

Do we know which other characters Marvel still have the rights to that haven't already been announced?

 

As far as I'm aware it is simply anyone who isn't Spider-Man/X-men originated. I'd be interested to see the contract/terms actually.

[Happenstance]

Well thats good for you. I still agree with them more than disagree and trying not to offend, id pay more attention to their reviews than yours (for reasons which weve been over before)