Monday, October 12, 2009
Old New Warriors
New Warriors #1
By Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley
Wow, part of me can't believe this comic is so old. 19 years! Holy crap! That is probably older than some of these characters are meant to be.
Um, so yeah. It's a Marvel superhero team comic. It does what it does pretty well, introduces the characters, makes me wonder why Kid Nova (when did he start/stop using "kid"?) has such a terrible costume, why anyone knows who Namorita is, and who the hell invented Night Thrasher. Why the hell does this rich guy with computers and a suit of armour ride a skateboard?
(In related news, go read about Dwayne McDuffie's pitch for Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers.)
I actually don't know much about these characters, but this series is supposed to be pretty good. This issue didn't blow me away, but I'm willing to check out further issues in quarter bins in the future...
Other things I read recently that I barely remember.
Bloody Mary #1
Garth Ennis. Carlos Ezquerra.
Oh man. Helix. Remember that? No? Well I don't either. It was a sci-fi imprint that from DC that crashed and burned pretty fast (like pretty much every imprint that just starts one day). I think Transmetropolitan was the only thing that made it out alive (transferred to Vertigo) and I don't know if anything else is even in print right now.
(I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and woah. It lasted over two years? That makes all of DC's more recent imprints that have died in less than a year (Focus, Minx, something else I'm sure I've forgotten) look like even bigger failures.)
Anyway, this is really just Garth Ennis war comics in the future. It's pretty good. I'm surprised there isn't a trade of it out. Oh wait, apparently Vertigo put one out like four years ago. Why didn't the comic shop I work in have that? I guess nobody remembers Helix.
Some Batman comic with Anarky
Just. Argh. No.
Some of those end of the world Wildstorm comics: I do not remember which ones.
Hey, these were pretty good (as usual). Though the art in the Gen13 interlude issue (by Dan Hipp) was definitely not as good as the work the regular artist Mike Huddleston was doing. It's not bad or anything, just probably not what superhero comic fans actually want to see.
By Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley
Wow, part of me can't believe this comic is so old. 19 years! Holy crap! That is probably older than some of these characters are meant to be.
Um, so yeah. It's a Marvel superhero team comic. It does what it does pretty well, introduces the characters, makes me wonder why Kid Nova (when did he start/stop using "kid"?) has such a terrible costume, why anyone knows who Namorita is, and who the hell invented Night Thrasher. Why the hell does this rich guy with computers and a suit of armour ride a skateboard?
(In related news, go read about Dwayne McDuffie's pitch for Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers.)
I actually don't know much about these characters, but this series is supposed to be pretty good. This issue didn't blow me away, but I'm willing to check out further issues in quarter bins in the future...
Other things I read recently that I barely remember.
Bloody Mary #1
Garth Ennis. Carlos Ezquerra.
Oh man. Helix. Remember that? No? Well I don't either. It was a sci-fi imprint that from DC that crashed and burned pretty fast (like pretty much every imprint that just starts one day). I think Transmetropolitan was the only thing that made it out alive (transferred to Vertigo) and I don't know if anything else is even in print right now.
(I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and woah. It lasted over two years? That makes all of DC's more recent imprints that have died in less than a year (Focus, Minx, something else I'm sure I've forgotten) look like even bigger failures.)
Anyway, this is really just Garth Ennis war comics in the future. It's pretty good. I'm surprised there isn't a trade of it out. Oh wait, apparently Vertigo put one out like four years ago. Why didn't the comic shop I work in have that? I guess nobody remembers Helix.
Some Batman comic with Anarky
Just. Argh. No.
Some of those end of the world Wildstorm comics: I do not remember which ones.
Hey, these were pretty good (as usual). Though the art in the Gen13 interlude issue (by Dan Hipp) was definitely not as good as the work the regular artist Mike Huddleston was doing. It's not bad or anything, just probably not what superhero comic fans actually want to see.
Labels: comics, DC, Helix, I will spend 25 cents on anything, Marvel, Wildstorm
Monday, October 05, 2009
The Savage Runaways
All New Savage She-Hulk #1
For a character that's only ever shown up twice before, there's an oddly large amount of backstory here (and eight pages of interviews to talk about it!). It's sort of generic. Time travelling. Fighting some group of soldiery people who's name I forget (HAMMER? SWORD?). I liked the bits in the future with the tribe of women fighting the tribe of people that look kind of like primitive, cut-rate Wolverines. Worth a dollar, not $4 (which is the cover price).
Runaways Vol 3, #11
Noooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooooo! Noooooooooooooo!
I was all ready to enjoy Runaways again after the relaunch with Terry Moore writing failed to interest me at all (I read the first issue and I think that was it). This was Katheryn (Patsy Walker: Hellcat) Immonen's first issue, and it even started promisingly, the characters talked more like how I remembered, the art was good, everyone was just hanging out, which is probably what this book should be about as none of the characters want to be superheroes, but then...
But then Immonen had to kill one of my favourite characters. Hell, who am I kidding, I like all of these characters, but so many of them have died in this series already. Stop killing the characters! No! Just stop it. I hate you. I hope that character isn't dead. I guess I'll look for more issues (and I'll probably even read the stuff I missed at some point), but I really don't want more characters in this comic to die. It makes me sad.
Update! Since originally writing this I've read the first trade of Terry Moore's run (bizarrely only including six of his nine issues), which wasn't very good, and heard about/seen some of the final issue of the current run (#14).
The art looks not very good, the colouring is less than awesome (apparently coloured on a laptop at cons), and these combine to create some of the least Asian Nico panels I've seen. Plus the story just stops, it doesn't end. It's just the end of the comic. It seems as though Marvel just cancelled the series before this writer's story could end. Though admittedly this was solicited as a four part story.
Oh well, maybe next time.
For a character that's only ever shown up twice before, there's an oddly large amount of backstory here (and eight pages of interviews to talk about it!). It's sort of generic. Time travelling. Fighting some group of soldiery people who's name I forget (HAMMER? SWORD?). I liked the bits in the future with the tribe of women fighting the tribe of people that look kind of like primitive, cut-rate Wolverines. Worth a dollar, not $4 (which is the cover price).
Runaways Vol 3, #11
Noooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooooo! Noooooooooooooo!
I was all ready to enjoy Runaways again after the relaunch with Terry Moore writing failed to interest me at all (I read the first issue and I think that was it). This was Katheryn (Patsy Walker: Hellcat) Immonen's first issue, and it even started promisingly, the characters talked more like how I remembered, the art was good, everyone was just hanging out, which is probably what this book should be about as none of the characters want to be superheroes, but then...
But then Immonen had to kill one of my favourite characters. Hell, who am I kidding, I like all of these characters, but so many of them have died in this series already. Stop killing the characters! No! Just stop it. I hate you. I hope that character isn't dead. I guess I'll look for more issues (and I'll probably even read the stuff I missed at some point), but I really don't want more characters in this comic to die. It makes me sad.
Update! Since originally writing this I've read the first trade of Terry Moore's run (bizarrely only including six of his nine issues), which wasn't very good, and heard about/seen some of the final issue of the current run (#14).
The art looks not very good, the colouring is less than awesome (apparently coloured on a laptop at cons), and these combine to create some of the least Asian Nico panels I've seen. Plus the story just stops, it doesn't end. It's just the end of the comic. It seems as though Marvel just cancelled the series before this writer's story could end. Though admittedly this was solicited as a four part story.
Oh well, maybe next time.
Labels: comics, Marvel, One dollar theatre
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Secret Invasion: Requiem
Okay, so I guess this actually cost 33 cents or something, but close enough.
This is, like a number of recent Marvel comics, actually a couple of old stories that have been recoloured. Plus a new framing sequence drawn by Khoi Pham (whose art I really liked on Hercules, but who didn't impress me that much here).
The framing sequence is really just there to introduce the other comics though, so it's not really Pham's fault as he wasn't given the most interesting stuff to work with. The other comics are there to show that Ant Man (Henry Pym) has always been a jackass. The first story (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) is the first appearance of the Wasp, and also features Ant Man's origin. Which is that his wife, who was a Soviet defector, got killed when they went back to the Soviet Union for a holiday. WTF? Is that still in continuity?
So Pym is doing ant science in his lab, when another scientist shows up and asks him to help with his gamma ray beam. To the other scientist's great shock and annoyance, Pym tells him that he doesn't know anything about that field. I kind of love that, this guy shows up at Pym's house to ask him for help, yet doesn't even know what type of science he does. He even mentions that Pym is a famous scientist (for what, I don't know). The real reason this scientist is in the story is to introduce his daughter! Janet Van Dyne. Who apparently looks exactly like Pym's ex-wife. Except they look nothing alike at all. Pym is just crazy.
To add to this, when Van Dyne becomes the Wasp, Pym decides to give her completely untested powers that he hasn't even tried on himself. "Here, let me implant these wings and antenna under your skin." Then they fight a monster. And Van Dyne is all like "Oh Hank Pym, you are so dreamy."
(So this comic was lying on a table at the house I'm staying at, and one of my friends picked it up and started looking through it and said he was amazed at how good the art looked in the first story. He was shocked when I told him that art was from the '60s. Colouring is so important.)
And then! We have the famous issue where Ant Man hits the Wasp. And is just generally insane (he builds a robot to attack the Avengers so that he can then defeat it).
I think one of the most hilarious things about this issue is that apparently the other Avengers are so used to the Wasp's terrible wardrobe (that purple thing!), that when she shows up to a meeting in a turtleneck, coat, and sunglasses (to hide the beating Ant Man gave her), nobody says a word about it until she takes her sunglasses off and they see her black eye.
After both the reprints, we get a couple more new pages and see that Hank Pym has decided to become a new the Wasp, in order to honour the one that just died in Secret Invasion. Ultimately, all this comic does is make me wish that it was Hank Pym (a character who has apparently always been an insane idiot) was the one who had died instead of the Wasp (one of the oldest female superheroes the Marvel universe has). Oh well, I'm sure she'll be back eventually.
But really, this comic was worth the price I paid for the three pages showing every costume/outfit the Wasp has ever worn. Holy shit! I bet that took way too long to put together.
This is, like a number of recent Marvel comics, actually a couple of old stories that have been recoloured. Plus a new framing sequence drawn by Khoi Pham (whose art I really liked on Hercules, but who didn't impress me that much here).
The framing sequence is really just there to introduce the other comics though, so it's not really Pham's fault as he wasn't given the most interesting stuff to work with. The other comics are there to show that Ant Man (Henry Pym) has always been a jackass. The first story (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) is the first appearance of the Wasp, and also features Ant Man's origin. Which is that his wife, who was a Soviet defector, got killed when they went back to the Soviet Union for a holiday. WTF? Is that still in continuity?
So Pym is doing ant science in his lab, when another scientist shows up and asks him to help with his gamma ray beam. To the other scientist's great shock and annoyance, Pym tells him that he doesn't know anything about that field. I kind of love that, this guy shows up at Pym's house to ask him for help, yet doesn't even know what type of science he does. He even mentions that Pym is a famous scientist (for what, I don't know). The real reason this scientist is in the story is to introduce his daughter! Janet Van Dyne. Who apparently looks exactly like Pym's ex-wife. Except they look nothing alike at all. Pym is just crazy.
To add to this, when Van Dyne becomes the Wasp, Pym decides to give her completely untested powers that he hasn't even tried on himself. "Here, let me implant these wings and antenna under your skin." Then they fight a monster. And Van Dyne is all like "Oh Hank Pym, you are so dreamy."
(So this comic was lying on a table at the house I'm staying at, and one of my friends picked it up and started looking through it and said he was amazed at how good the art looked in the first story. He was shocked when I told him that art was from the '60s. Colouring is so important.)
And then! We have the famous issue where Ant Man hits the Wasp. And is just generally insane (he builds a robot to attack the Avengers so that he can then defeat it).
I think one of the most hilarious things about this issue is that apparently the other Avengers are so used to the Wasp's terrible wardrobe (that purple thing!), that when she shows up to a meeting in a turtleneck, coat, and sunglasses (to hide the beating Ant Man gave her), nobody says a word about it until she takes her sunglasses off and they see her black eye.
After both the reprints, we get a couple more new pages and see that Hank Pym has decided to become a new the Wasp, in order to honour the one that just died in Secret Invasion. Ultimately, all this comic does is make me wish that it was Hank Pym (a character who has apparently always been an insane idiot) was the one who had died instead of the Wasp (one of the oldest female superheroes the Marvel universe has). Oh well, I'm sure she'll be back eventually.
But really, this comic was worth the price I paid for the three pages showing every costume/outfit the Wasp has ever worn. Holy shit! I bet that took way too long to put together.
Labels: comics, I will spend 25 cents on anything, Marvel
Monday, September 21, 2009
Punching people
Lobo: Blazing Chain of Love
I can't really believe that Lobo has been in so many comics. Even ignoring all the one shots (like this one) and miniserieses, he had a 64 issue series in the '90s. 64 issues! That's crazy! In this one Lobo is trying to track down a hooker and ends up going to a harem planet. It's fairly predictable, but I liked the art by "Denise Cowan" and the last page gag about condom use was pretty funny.
Troublemakers #1
It's alright. The cover blurb of "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose this comic." made me think it'd be more about 20something slackers with superpowers, but instead we get a comic about teenagers who were given superpowers by the company their parents work for and they're raised in some top secret facility and blah blah blah. It doesn't have supervillains or anything, which I suppose makes it different from most of these comics, but yeah. The letters page and other Acclaim/Valiant company info is so weird looking back on it today.
Hercules: Prince of Power #1
Hercules is a jerk. Hercules drinks. Zeus kicks him out of Olympus. Into space! Hercules meets aliens. Hercules continues to be a jerk, and drink, and fight. But he's still a hero. And a jerk. And he gets a robot drunk. Hercules is awesome. I need to catch up on the current series. And find more issues of this.
I can't really believe that Lobo has been in so many comics. Even ignoring all the one shots (like this one) and miniserieses, he had a 64 issue series in the '90s. 64 issues! That's crazy! In this one Lobo is trying to track down a hooker and ends up going to a harem planet. It's fairly predictable, but I liked the art by "Denise Cowan" and the last page gag about condom use was pretty funny.
Troublemakers #1
It's alright. The cover blurb of "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose this comic." made me think it'd be more about 20something slackers with superpowers, but instead we get a comic about teenagers who were given superpowers by the company their parents work for and they're raised in some top secret facility and blah blah blah. It doesn't have supervillains or anything, which I suppose makes it different from most of these comics, but yeah. The letters page and other Acclaim/Valiant company info is so weird looking back on it today.
Hercules: Prince of Power #1
Hercules is a jerk. Hercules drinks. Zeus kicks him out of Olympus. Into space! Hercules meets aliens. Hercules continues to be a jerk, and drink, and fight. But he's still a hero. And a jerk. And he gets a robot drunk. Hercules is awesome. I need to catch up on the current series. And find more issues of this.
Labels: comics, DC, I will spend 25 cents on anything, Marvel
Monday, August 17, 2009
Age of the Sentry/Freedom Collective
Age of the Sentry
That the comics put out by Marvel in the '60s were incredibly influential is pretty obvious, not just for the fact that they're still in print, that the characters are still around, that people still talk about the character, but also because people are still parodying/homaging the style.
First off the covers of both these comics: words words words. They are covered in words. And things happening. And "Approved by the Cosmic/Kremlin Code Authority" boxes in the corner. I was amused.
Anyway anyway. The Sentry. I heard the character sucked. I heard his first miniseries and this one were good. I didn't know. I don't read New Avengers (well, I read an issue in Malaysia once). This was a dollar, so I bought it.
The first page kind of just confuses me as to its existence. It's a kid asking his dad to tell him a story about the Sentry. In comic book style. It's drawn/coloured much more modernly than the rest of the comic, and I don't really get the point.
Then there's the first story. Written by Jeff Parker, who I usually like and I should really read the Interman some day, and drawn by Nick Dragotta, who did some X-Statix stuff? I think. The story is ridiculous, but it's supposed to be. The Sentry works for an encyclopedia company? Whatever.
It's the Sentry's origin story, and I have no idea if this meshes with his previous one (does he even have a previous one?) and there's a big pink monster thing, and a guy with three brains, and it's cute and all, but I sort of feel it's trying too hard. What I really enjoy is that the colourist, Val Staples, has made the colouring intentionally shitty. Like the various colours don't quite match the lines on every page. It's good. I like that.
The second story is by Paul Tobin, who has written something I've read I'm sure... Oh, he wrote Banana Sunday! That was excellent. Go read that instead of either this comic or this blog. His story does have beatnik Mad Thinker though, which is fun.
The Freedom Collective
The Freedom Collective is the idea of what comics the Soviet Union would have produced if Stan Lee and Jack Kirby lived there. It doesn't quite live up to it's potential. At least part of that due to the fact that it's in black and white, and as much as I love the Essentials Marvel puts out, a project like this would have benefited from colour. Especially at $5.95 Canadian (while the US price is only $3.95). What the fuck Rough Cut Comics? Have you ever looked at a currency converter? They are _free_ on the _internet_. That price should be about $4.50 or whatever. Thankfully I only paid a buck. Still.
Soviet pop culture is something I'm interested in, and if I had continued studying Russia/Russian I probably would have ended up writing essays on Soviet spy movies and comic books (I just met someone who said their friend had written a thesis on Russian comics, I should find out about that). And while this works to some extent, it's still written by westerners, and is still sort of poking fun at the Soviets. I'm curious as to how much research they actually did for it.
That the comics put out by Marvel in the '60s were incredibly influential is pretty obvious, not just for the fact that they're still in print, that the characters are still around, that people still talk about the character, but also because people are still parodying/homaging the style.
First off the covers of both these comics: words words words. They are covered in words. And things happening. And "Approved by the Cosmic/Kremlin Code Authority" boxes in the corner. I was amused.
Anyway anyway. The Sentry. I heard the character sucked. I heard his first miniseries and this one were good. I didn't know. I don't read New Avengers (well, I read an issue in Malaysia once). This was a dollar, so I bought it.
The first page kind of just confuses me as to its existence. It's a kid asking his dad to tell him a story about the Sentry. In comic book style. It's drawn/coloured much more modernly than the rest of the comic, and I don't really get the point.
Then there's the first story. Written by Jeff Parker, who I usually like and I should really read the Interman some day, and drawn by Nick Dragotta, who did some X-Statix stuff? I think. The story is ridiculous, but it's supposed to be. The Sentry works for an encyclopedia company? Whatever.
It's the Sentry's origin story, and I have no idea if this meshes with his previous one (does he even have a previous one?) and there's a big pink monster thing, and a guy with three brains, and it's cute and all, but I sort of feel it's trying too hard. What I really enjoy is that the colourist, Val Staples, has made the colouring intentionally shitty. Like the various colours don't quite match the lines on every page. It's good. I like that.
The second story is by Paul Tobin, who has written something I've read I'm sure... Oh, he wrote Banana Sunday! That was excellent. Go read that instead of either this comic or this blog. His story does have beatnik Mad Thinker though, which is fun.
The Freedom Collective
The Freedom Collective is the idea of what comics the Soviet Union would have produced if Stan Lee and Jack Kirby lived there. It doesn't quite live up to it's potential. At least part of that due to the fact that it's in black and white, and as much as I love the Essentials Marvel puts out, a project like this would have benefited from colour. Especially at $5.95 Canadian (while the US price is only $3.95). What the fuck Rough Cut Comics? Have you ever looked at a currency converter? They are _free_ on the _internet_. That price should be about $4.50 or whatever. Thankfully I only paid a buck. Still.
Soviet pop culture is something I'm interested in, and if I had continued studying Russia/Russian I probably would have ended up writing essays on Soviet spy movies and comic books (I just met someone who said their friend had written a thesis on Russian comics, I should find out about that). And while this works to some extent, it's still written by westerners, and is still sort of poking fun at the Soviets. I'm curious as to how much research they actually did for it.
Labels: comics, Marvel, One dollar theatre
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Hercules: New Labors
The Incredible Hercules is the best book coming out from Marvel right now, which surprises me to no end. Hercules? Really? How is he even enough of a character to headline his own Marvel book? Yet it's really good, and it makes me sad that the sales on that title drop so much every month.
But I haven't read it in the last few months (and should probably pick up the newest collection), so instead I'm reviewing a collection of a miniseries about Hercules from a few years ago that I got out of the library. I picked it up with trepidation, as it is written by Frank Tieri, who's not exactly well known for writing super awesome comics.
And, well, this book pretty much makes my fears true. It's not terrible or anything, I mean, Hercules himself is written pretty much in character for the Marvel universe, as a sort of drunk buffoon who likes to fight, but still has a sense of decency. The scene where he crashes Thor's funeral and is like "What the fuck are you doing? This is not the type of funeral fit for a god!" was pretty accurate (and it wasn't a good funderal! Thor needs burning ships and stuff at a minimum).
The actual new labours are done fairly well too. The comic tries to update the old labours by having Hercules fight like, the Mole Man and Dr. Doom and stuff, and while some of the updated versions are just stupid, as a plot idea it works pretty well.
The problem is that the entire miniseries is trapped in ridiculous reality TV show trappings. In 2009 that is an incredibly tired and worn out cliche. In 2004 (when I guess this miniseries was commissioned) I think it was also a tired and worn out cliche. But whatever. So Hercules is on this reality TV show, and we get lots of terrible scenes where he's interacting with the people making it (which is a host, a camera man and...an executive or something? I remember there being three of them), and they interact with other people. These characters are written as completely depraved idiots with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever, and really make me wonder if Tieri has personal problems with TV people. Did they not hire him to write scripts or something? He seems pretty bitter.
Ultimately, there's a good Hercules story in here struggling to get out of a terrible reality TV show idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite make it. Thankfully, we do have an awesome Hercules comic coming out right now. Hurray!
