Dread Posted October 9, 2017 Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 Beautiful Canvas #1: crazy. Totally did not expect this weirdo shift halfway through. I'm interested in more. Blood Brothers #1: ok, I'll do another. Cable #2: this is ok but I'm not interested in Cable jumping to a new timeline chasing shit. I just got done with Old Man Logan doing that. Deadpool vs Punisher #5: fun. This will go down in history as the only time I've ever enjoyed a Deadpool book, but I'd argue that this had Punisher to bounce him off of. The Defenders #2: sure. Detective Comics #959: cool. I like Zatanna in small doses. Edge of Venomverse #1: this was terrible. I Am Groot #2: fun. Infamous Iron Man #9: man, I'm going to be sad when Doom is no longer Iron Man. Jean Grey #3: young Jean mixing it up with Namor was really fun. Jonah Hex/Yosemite Sam Special #1: This was incredibly violent. Like, EXTREMELY violent. I was a little shocker. I was a little shocked. Justice League of America #9: decent end to the two issue arc. Comics: 1022 Trades: 28 Graphic Novels: 24 Omnibuses: 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 Iron Fist #14 (1975): Sabretooth (written here as Sabre-Tooth) makes his debut, taking on Danny and Colleen Wing in the Canadian Rockies. Despite several references to recent and ongoing events, the issue itself is a solid standalone story about corporate raiding and attempted murder. A weakened Iron Fist takes on 'Tooth (who's been hired to kidnap then murder a lawyer), and only wins because of his training. Sabretooth's speed, strength, and claws are put-over rather well, but he reads like a knockoff Wolverine. Curiously, this is written in the second person. Does anyone know why this method was employed, and has any other superhero comic before or since done this? It's interesting, but rather distracting. John Byrne's storytelling is amazing. We start with a splash that pulls you in straightaway, then we're treated to three panels of Fist and Wing falling down a cliff from one panel to the next. It's something one can only accomplish in comics. On the next page, Byrne uses a page-wide horizontal panel to give us breathing room from the preceding action before sending us into a flashback. When the final fight begins, Danny is blinded by sunlight, and Byrne takes the opportunity to use another page-wide panel. This one, however, is completely white, with only the small figure of Iron Fist placed in the middle. Then there's parallel storytelling, using flashbacks to mirror the current action. The brilliance of this, though, is the tall panel that's placed before the two rows of four panels. In the top portion, a young Danny is blindfolded. In the lower portion, the masked Iron Fist begins to hunt 'Tooth. But this one panel is used to lead us into both rows. In all my years of comics, I cannot say I've seen that before. It's downright masterful. Iron Fist #73 (2017): This one opens with someone being broken out of a prison, but it's unclear what their motivations are. While this can be forgiven to some degree, this feels more like a part of a larger story than a complete tale in and of itself. Outside of the Fist / 'Tooth team-up, there's just not a lot here to compel further reading. The book isn't bad -- it's a good way to spend a few minutes -- I'm just not sure why we should care. Comics: 443Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 Marvel Legacy: This is an okay one-shot, but what was it supposed to accomplish? A character is back from the dead and the cliffhanger signals the return of others, so that's good, but I'm not sure what this was. Also, if you have a book called Marvel Legacy and feature a storage crate numbered 4-1939, contents of said crate better be related to Namor. Spirits of Vengeance #1: I'll keep reading for a few issues. Comics: 445Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davedevil Posted October 9, 2017 Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 The original Mayday Parker Spider-Girl series used second-person narration. It was also incredibly distracting in that book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 9, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 Even the origin box (did these have a name?) on the first page was in the second person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 9, 2017 Report Share Posted October 9, 2017 Kill All Monsters! Omnibus vol 1: in short, spectacular. I'll probably review this for further thoughts, but man. Good shit. Mage: The Hero Discovered Vol 1: Matt Wagner's second mythology is bringing bakc a lot of shit for me. It's reminding me, again, how important a figure he is in my creative life. Without Grendel and Mage, I would be a completely different fucking person. I'm so glad I'm going to finally have a whole saga in matching trades on my shelf. Birthright vol 5: great! INtense new direction and stakes coming up. Comics: 1022 Trades: 30 Graphic Novels: 24 Omnibuses: 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted October 10, 2017 Report Share Posted October 10, 2017 WicDiv 32: And fuck, there's the arc closer. Double whammy this issue, and McKelvie and Wilson go overtime/overboard on these sequences. One more time. Redlands 3: Gatormen, sex, chihuahuas biting off dude's dicks, and potentially one of the mystery parts already wrapped up. Alright. Jordie Bellaire's got some shit to get out of her system, and Del Rey does an amazing job drawing it, especially the sex. Seven to Eternity v2: I read selected bits of this in the singles, but having the full story arc together definitely helps the story cohere. Leans pretty heavily on some Remender standards ("I'm a bad guy who's done bad things but I'm gonna make it up to my FAMILY", issues with women), but is fun enough story wise that I can forgive it. Opena and James Harren guesting on art helps a lot too, it turns out. Zines: 15 Single Issues: 279 Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 95 Omnibuses: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 Defenders #6: Using courtroom sketches as a means to convey story might be a first. Detective Comics #966: Yes! More of this, please! Comics: 447Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 I feel behind on the Defenders fast. Need to remedy that. Mister Miracle #3 (2017): This...was better than I was expecting. Pretty dang good. Red Hood and the Outlaws #15 (2016): Read for the Cassandra appearance. I should stick with it because every time I've read this book since Rebirth I've enjoyed it. Action Comics #989: This was really good. The Mr. Oz reveal has been used to good effect, and I'm glad we're finally back at Metropolis. Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #15: Solid start to a story. I think the Benson sisters write Ivy a little too nice. While Pamela has her moments of nobility, the way they depict her is almost like an anti-hero. Maybe that's DC Super Hero Girls' influence. Detective Comics #966: COOL MAN Ms. Marvel #23 (2016): Decent issue Hulk #9: I resented the two artists on this. Julian Lopez was great, Franseco Gaston was less so. Hulk #10: Same as the last issue. The change in artists is really drastic. Hulk #11: Cute, goofy issue. I guess all the interplay with the word balloons was a callback to the Byrne era? The artwork was a touch too goofy though, for what began as a decidedly serious book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 11, 2017 Report Share Posted October 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Donomark said: Hulk #9: I resented the two artists on this. Julian Lopez was great, Franseco Gaston was less so. Hulk #10: Same as the last issue. The change in artists is really drastic. Hulk #11: Cute, goofy issue. I guess all the interplay with the word balloons was a callback to the Byrne era? The artwork was a touch too goofy though, for what began as a decidedly serious book. As a reader who is months behind, and a fan of the tone, story and art of this book, these comments hurt. Not looking forward to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted October 12, 2017 Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 Amazing Spider-Man #789: I really disliked this, and it's vintage Dan Slott Spider-Writing. The whole book is pitted against making Peter the most detested being in the world in a way which just doesn't feel right. Even if he screwed up while doing the right thing, Slott never balances the writing with enough sympathy. It's very obvious that he's actively writing against Peter and feels he should suffer, rather than have the reader be on his side. More on the nose writing ("I save people because that's what I do!" ugh), and a telegraphed trajectory with Mockingbird that felt repetitive and unbelievable. I was coming around to this book in the last couple of issues, but this hugely irritated me. Falcon #1: I was a bit skeptical when reading this. The harsher art style gave the story a darker tone, but so far this is a solid follow-up to a really terrific run on the Sam Wilson character by Nick Spencer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1: This reads very much like an early Image team-up comic. That's not meant to damn the issue; it just gave me flashbacks to that era. It's an okay action comic in which Jason and Dick talk about their not-too-friendly past before everyone takes on the KGBeast. There's some funny stuff with Bizarro, who Scott Lobdell clearly loves. Oddly, though, Artemis feels off. Way off. Like Lobdell didn't write her dialogue. From the moment she sees Dick she's flirty, even dropping a "Well, hello" and "Oh, Dick, that's so funny." She's shown doing her hair (and playing with it) and giggling like a crushing schoolgirl. A lot of that comes down to Tyler Kirkham's pencils, but Lobdell could and should have reigned in her personality. Red Hood and the Outlaws #14: Part one of Bizarro Reborn set the stage for The Outlaws to have new tech, new missions, and a refined agenda, but the ending indicates it won't last for long. Bizarro has quickly become a favorite character of mine. Red Hood and the Outlaws #15: Batwoman and her crew (Orphan, Clayface, Batwing, and Azrael) go after The Outlaws because they're stopping crime. Or something. It's confusing. Granted, everyone thinks Redhood, Artemis, and Bizarro are criminals, but instead of calmly approaching The Outlaws like sane, rational people, Batwoman & Co. kidnap Bizarro because... reasons. Comics: 450Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 Falcon #1: This is trying so hard to be socially relevant -- for which I give it a lot of credit -- but too much of it comes off as misinformed and naive. The gang dialogue is fresh out of the 90s. Likewise, Patriot's comes off like someone who hasn't heard kids speak. "Dude only got like 300 followers on the Gram!" Oof! "I'm from Crooklyn, better known as Brooklyn." Double oof! When it comes to the Falcon and Patriot trying to get the two gangs to enter into a truce, there's little to no meat on their arguments. They basically come down to: "There should be peace." "No." "You're going to get hurt if you keep this up. Is that what you want?" "Hmm. Okay... we'll talk." My biggest gripe, though: Spoiler Sam brings up financial inequality, unjust incarcerations, unemployment, and education as real-world reasons why gangs form and thrive. Great! Yes! Let's talk about this! Oh, but no, it's really a literal devil that's pulling the strings. Sigh. Also: While the mayor portrayed in the comic is not Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, having him turnout to be Blackheart is so wrong. Mayor Emanuel is Jewish, so a tailed, cloven-hoofed devil in the guise of the mayor of Chicago feeds into some very old, very nasty Jewish stereotypes. I want to like this book, but Rodney Barnes is watering down the issues to fit the format, and that's a shame because these are things we need to read about and discuss as a collective whole. Chicago things The gangs are called The Southstone Rangers and The Spanish Kings. One assumes Black P. Stone Nation is the basis for The Southstone Rangers. It's clear, however, that The Spanish Kings were going to be The Latin Kings, but an edit was made to the dialogue. The signs are in the art: several members have LK tattoos on their arms and / or knuckles, at least two members have five-point crown tattoos, while one is wearing a shirt with the crown, and another has a crown necklace. Growing up in and around the Cicero / Berwyn area, these tags and tats are burnt into my mind. So they're easy to spot in a comic set in Chicago. And a nitpick: Grant Park is not set across the street from rundown shops and / or barbed wire fences. Comics: 451Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted October 12, 2017 Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 I'll grant you the dialogue, and I especially caught that 'On the 'gram" line. I think I appreciated the carryover of social consciousness with the character from the last book to the point where I gave it more slack. I like the mentor-sidekick relationship between Sam and Patriot. But parts of it did reek of 90s Milestone wannabe writing, to which I felt that a lot of that was owed to the very harsh art style. Marvel is doing a lot of socially relevant comic books right now, and this to me didn't feel as any better or worst than the lot of them. The Champions, Ms. Marvel, HULK, Amazing Spider-Man all contend with interacting fantasy characters with problems they can't punch. If the subject matter in this issue is watered down (and it is, truly), it didn't feel out of line with most of the other comics approaching much of the same problems. Blackhart is a cop-out, but as a first issue I'm willing to see where Barnes takes it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 12, 2017 Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 Oh...Patriot from the Secret Empire antho tie-in is going to be a regular? I'm probably out before I was in, then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 (edited) Falcon #1: -You don't have to be from Chicago to know that there's no one under the age of 22 that uses the phrase "old-skool". What's worse is that it's spoken over the phone, so it'd be sch anyway. -I know we grant writers amnesia license to write characters no one's seen in a while a certain way but man, Patriot's dived into a Hydra base without fear, so why the fuck is he worried about automatic weapons fire? -Sam Wilson offers the dumbest, most "PUT DOWN THE GUNS, DON'T YOU KNOW YOU'RE KILLING KIDS" bullshit to the gang leaders I've heard in a while. -Look, I'll grant Mobb Deep is a massive influence in NYC, but a Prodigy tribute at the U of Chicago's cathedral (the same place where heads of states speak) is a bit fucking far. Of course, the writer (Mr. Barnes) won a Peabody, so I write that and maybe there was something at Mandel Hall, but I doubt it. -Also, no one I know downloads music anymore, they stream it. -Yeah, what the actual shit is this? EDIT: This comic reads like the experience of plug and chug, where you have a formula, you put the numbers in and you wait for the calculator to spit out the answer. Patriot sounds like he's new here, which he definitively isn't. Sam Wilson suggests the most trite bullshit. Mandel Hall looks okay, I guess? Close enough for government work. Grant Park is unrecognizable. If I'm given a choice, I prefer the Christopher Priest attempt at this in Deathstroke. Edited October 13, 2017 by jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Garth Ennis and others' Punisher: I see why people call it a classic. It is. More to write when it's not next in my mind to Falcon #1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Was that the Marvel Knights run or the MAX issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Medisin #2: not anywhere near where I would have gone with this premise, but I'm still intrigued. No Angel #4: these kinds of indies always start out well and then fart along aimlessly. Disappointing. Occupy Avengers #8: kind of great. Paklis #2: fucking gorgeous. Project Superpowers Herokillers #2: fuck...how can you go from what Warren Ellis was doing with this continuity to this? What a disgrace. Redneck #3: still good. Secret Weapons #1: Valiant fucking REFUSES to stop expanding their universe and it seems to be working really well for them. Great first issue. Street Fighter vs Darkstalkers #3: Morrigan's boobs are about the only thing worth looking at in this book. Not sure why I expected more. Suicide Squad #20: so delightful. DC is killing it lately. The Dregs #4: perfect. Fucking beautiful. One of the best comics of the year. The X-Files #15: So good. This would be too on the nose if it wasn't taking real life terror and doing it so well. MUlder and Scully vs the Trump administration SHOULDN'T be this good. X-Men Blue #6: Fun. Loving these characters. Batman/The Shadow #4: kind of fun. Batman #24-27: Ok, the Catwoman thing and first chunk of Jokes and Riddles. Not blown away. Not enjoying the whole thing going on while Bruce and Selina are doing it. Seems tonally weird. Art's fantastic. Babyteeth #2: Fucking great! Cave Bang #1-4: this is classic smut comics. The first issue is genuinely great. The others are glorified pinups and 2 page PLayboy cartoons that are raunchier. I'm guessing they never planned for more than one. Comics: 1044 Trades: 30 Graphic Novels: 24 Omnibuses: 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Bitch Planet Triple Feature 5: Fraction and Charretier lead with the first short story, which is in my opinion, the strongest. Tsuei does one about Asian actors in Hollywood, and Bassey/Eyang/Nyambi Nyambi do a great one about white women's appropriation of black culture. Descender 25: Feels like the best parts of Pluto and Astro Boy mixed with Nguyen's watercolors. Shit's jumping off again in a big way. Zines: 15 Single Issues: 281 Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 95 Omnibuses: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted October 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2017 Ragman #1: What was this? Comics: 452Manga: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 Falcon 1: I just spent ten minutes reading this and yelling at Jim in the other room. Christ. This is fucking embarassing. Zines: 15 Single Issues: 282 Trades/Graphic Novels/Anthologies: 95 Omnibuses: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 I'll have to read that again since it's produced such visceral responses from three different people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 It was PunisherMAX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 12 hours ago, Donomark said: I'll have to read that again since it's produced such visceral responses from three different people To elaborate: the monologuing felt super ham fisted to me, if trying really really hard to recall Milestone. There are parts of continuity that seem to be straight up ignored or thrown out. Also, the Chicago/Emanuel stand-in stuff, the latter of which could potentially lead to some REAL fucking stupid awful Jewish stereotypes depending on where they take it next issue. Admittedly, I was led by Mike and Jim's reactions, but even without that, that this is the guy who's apparently writing and coproducing on the Hulu series for Runaways is... not real encouraging tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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