Here we are again - but I haven’t got to read mine yet. Thought I should put this up anyway, as there seems to be a plethora of comics threads cropping up…
I highly recomend Astonishing X-Men #7, if only for the following exchange:
Thing: I thought they had a cure for you people.
Wolverine: You got something against mutants?
Thing: I meant Canadians.
Some of the best banter I’ve seen since, well, since Firefly went off the air. One question: who were the students we saw? The triple psychic and the eyeless seer, specifically, do they have any backstory, or are they just random psychic classmate sof Wing.
I picked up AX #7, but haven’t read it yet. If I recognize them, I’ll let you know.
The only thing I’ve read at this point is GL : Rebirth #3.
Sleeper Season 2 #7 - I wish I was reading this series in TPBs, as the single issues are such quick reads, but I’m buying it to support the creative team and help convince DC there will be enough demand for TPBs. Another solid enough issue, with two shocking moments at the end:
Peter Grimm kills Triple-X Ray[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Tao (truly one of the smartest and scariest bastards in comics history) reveals to Holden that he knows all about his relationship with Miss Misery, showing him video surveillance and everything!
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips never disappoint me, except when they leave me wanting more every month. Sleeper needs to be a damn HBO series, as soon as possible.
Iron Man #1 - I always thought Warren Ellis, with his fascinations with technology, body modification, and hard-drinking heroes, would be the perfect writer for Iron Man. I’m not much of a Marvel follower, but my comic shop had the first issue of his run on sale for a dollar, so I couldn’t refuse. It actually makes sense to me that Ellis retconned Tony Stark/Iron Man’s origin to Middle Eastern conflict in the '90s, updating the Korean War setting from his original backstory. Adi Granov’s computer-enhanced artwork is pretty, but I would have preferred a more traditional approach with some gorgeous computer coloring, like Laura Martin does. I’ll probably wait for the inevitable TPB on this one, unless my shop keeps marking them down!
Judgment Day: Aftermath - a real treasure from the 50-cent bin! This one-shot by Alan Moore and Gil Kane has eluded me for years, but I couldn’t believe they had two uber-cheap copies just hidden away in their discount bins. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointing read, especially after Moore’s excellent Judgment Day miniseries where he created a rich universe for Rob Liefeld’s Awesome Comics continuity set around a superhero murder trial, but the issue is a nice piece to add to the end of the run.
Team One: Stormwatch #1-2 - I paid a buck total for these, but I don’t even feel I got what I paid for. I’m a big Wildstorm Universe fan, but these comics were just boring. Funny, I had the Team One: Wildcats issues for years, and I should have known better. Oh well, can’t win 'em all.
I don’t know that it was his choice. I understand (though am likely wrong) that there was an Iron Man movie planned and Tom Cruise was interested in playing Tony. I heard some guys discussing this at the store and noticed that Stark did indeed look suspiciously like Cruise (although surprisingly not in the new mini). I imagine that Marvel wanted to change the origin significantly before the movie becaue fans who theoretically start reading after the movie will pick the last trade and if there’s a big difference, be confused.
Any thoughts, or am I pulling that out of my ass?
JUDGEMENT DAY is a great series, and harder than hell to find. If you haven’t read Moore’s SUPREMEs, (JUDGEMENT DAY comes in the middle of the SUPREME run) you haveta. They’re collected in two tpbs. (Apparently Byrne --or some other writer defending Byrne’s revamp–said something to the effect of “No one could have written the old, Silver-Age Superman in a way that modern audiences would buy. He’s just too silly!” and Moore took it as a challenge. Moore wrote the best Superman stories of the '90s in those issues, IMO)
Just for laffs I picked up the TPB of THE PROBABILITY BROACH. It’s a (thuddingly literal) adaptation of a SF novel from the late '70s. L. Neil Smith who was the (real life) Libertarian VP candidate for a couple of elections wrote it and it’s a libertarian wet-dream Libertopia novel.
The short version: Win Bear, a police detective from the near-future world of 1985(?) gets mixed up in a murder plot. As he evades the facist jackbooted FBI he falls through a portal to Libertopia. Now, utopian novels are often terrible, and this one (despite some excellent storytellling skills on the writer’s part) is no exception. Every problem in society is solved by “libertarianism”. EVERY SINGLE ONE! We don’t have sentient, talking apes, chimps, or dolphins in our world. Y’know why? We don’t embrace libertarian principles. In our world, little kids (3 and 4 years old) sometimes exercise bad judgment, such that you wouldn’t want to give them loaded guns. In Libertopia, you can give 3 year olds loaded pistols with no fear. Why? LIBERTARIAN PRINCIPLES! There’s NO poverty, war, hunger, envy, greed, etc*. Why? LIBERTARIAN PRINCIPLES! (And I’m a quasi-libertarian–I agree to a point with some of those principles!). Oh, and some evil authoritarian Hamiltonians are in collusion with the fascist police-state of our world in a plot that will bring Libertopia to it’s knees allowing the facists to take over. But they’re foiled by LIBERTARIAN PRINCIPLES! (and lots of gunplay, which, come to think of it, is a part of LIBERTARIAN PRINCIPLES!)
But those are flaws in the original novel, and to the author’s credit, he still manages to tell a rousingly fun story, if you accept his basic premises for the duration of the story.
The graphic novel, however, does not expand or open up the story. We don’t get new insights, new scenes, new perspectives, added character development: nothing. What we get is a nearly scene-by-scene adaptation of the book. Nothing new (that I noticed) at all.
Look, IMO, the best novel->comic adaptation was Phil Foglios’ adaptation of ANOTHER FINE MYTH. Not only did he give us new insights into the characters, tweaked the flow of the story, gave us new scenes that worked perfectly with the source material, improving it, he also managed to fix/improve the original ending in the novel (which still doesn’t make sense to me) while still remaning true to the original work. This wasn’t that.
If you’re just gonna add pictures to a novel, why bother? Comics are a different medium than novels, they demand a different story flow, pacing and if you’re not going to bring anything new to the story what’s the point?
NOT recommended.
Fenris
*Except for the villians, of course…but they’re (gasp) non-Libertarians!!!
Yes. I also liked, “I really like beer.”
I haven’t read them all yet, but I’ve gotten through that one, plus these:
GL: Rebirth: well, it has its own thread. But I’m really enjoying it.
Catwoman: When in Rome: someday, I’d like to break into the Vatican, all Mission: Impossible style
Manhunter: another Identity Crisis tie-in, dealing a little with Firestorm’s death and the ongoing investigation into it. Features an unlikely bit of dialogue: “You’re lucky Solomon Grundy’s head wasn’t a George Foreman grill.”
Green Arrow: wrapping up at least this phase of the GA vs. Brick and Mia & Team Green Arrow deal with her HIV+ status storylines, culminating with a new person in an old costume.
No new comics for me this week, but thanks to a gift certificate from diku and my comic shop’s annual 12 Days of Christmas 20% off sale, I was able to get the What If Classics vol 1 tpb (the first of many in this series I pray), Maximum Carnage tpb (gotta support my name sake), and the latest issue of Wizard for the grand total of $2.40, tax included!
Oh, I have both of those Supreme TPBs, currently on loan to a friend who also loved them. Great stuff. I also have Moore’s Youngblood #1 and 2, the Awesome Holiday Special, and now all four issues of Judgment Day: Alpha, Omega, Final Judgment, and Aftermath. (What’s wrong with #1, 2, 3, and 4?) Between these, the Image miniseries 1963, and the bulk of his America’s Best Comics work, I’ve often suspected Alan Moore is trying to atone for unwittingly uttering in an age of “grim ‘n’ gritty” and “deconstruction” in superhero comics with Watchmen.
Oh, and if anyone is interested, there is still a complete set of all four Judgment Day issues in the discount bin at my shop. They have a few other things that look interesting to me–the DC One Million miniseries by Grant Morrison, the Deathblow miniseries by Alan Moore, and what looks like most of the Grifter series by Steven Grant. Would those be worth picking up for less than cover prices?
I read DC One Million because it tied in somewhat to Starman (the Starman 1,000,000 story was included in the TPB, but it as nice having context for it with the other stories included there), but I remember enjoying it. If it’s on sale, you might want to pick it up. C’mon, it has Vandal Savage and wacky doin’s in the future!
I’ve never been much of a Grant Morrison fan (gasp!), but I guess I can’t go too wrong with $2 for four issues. I do have the Starman and Chronos #1,000,000 issues, but only because I was collecting those books during the crossover.
The eyeless seer I don’t know, but may have cropped up during the last half of Morrison’s run. The triplets are Emma Frost’s proteges, the “Stepford Cuckoos” as they are sometimes called, introduced during Morrison’s run, I think.
I got : Astonishing X-Men #7 ; Conan #11 ; Jingle Belle #2 of 4 ; The Witching #7 ; Sleeper #7 ; KODT #98 ; JLA : Classified #2 ; Space Ghost #2 ; Richard Dragon #8 ; X-Force #5 ; New Thunderbolts #3 ; Manhunter #5 ; Girl Genius #13 ; GI Joe Reloaded #11.
Comments : JLA Classified has Batman get smacked down within minutes of his entry into Superbia with the Justice League of Androids. Seems a bit unlike him. Space Ghost rocks. A lot. X-Force/Ast. X-Men/ X-4 (didn’t read) : Marvel is marketing the hell out of the FF - in preparation for their upcoming movie, no doubt. “Hey Reed, can we be evil?”
What with the holidays, I haven’t got too far in my reading this week.
Catwoman: When in Rome – I thought it kinda interesting that Jeph Loeb blurbed that Bruce Wayne was 10 when his parents were murdered. That’s probably the oldest age I’ve heard in various recollections. I think often times, I thought it was age 8.
Ah, another chapter, Selina has another nightmare, Selina pops Eddie (again), and another cliffhanger. If you asked me before this series started, “Would I probably like the writing or the art better?” I woulda said the writing, but now, I’m liking the art a bit more so far.
Green Arrow #45 – Was one of two comics with a Speedy on the cover (the other is Teen Titans Go! #14) this week, but I’ll guess that this issue will be the “hot” book and be priced double cover ($5) when I visit my comics shop next week. While the Mia events were sold forefront, the confrontation with GA and Brick was vintage Ollie.
Green Lantern: Rebrith #3 – Folks I online chat with from various parts of the US seem to have trouble getting copies of the title, I haven’t had any problems.
As for the story, I think this was the “set-up” issue of the mini-series. There’s a lotta Kyle retelling of Parallax, yellow, etc. The Van Sciver artwork is outstanding.
Manhunter #5 – Heh, I gotta love a story which references Albert’s drug addiction on “Little House on the Prairie.” I did like that they (finally) referenced a previous Manhunter. I just hope future issues doesn’t dwell too long with the “trial” story arc that DC says lies ahead.
Black Widow #4 – sighs I wish this was an ongoing series. Natasha finds out you can’t go home again, but does find out a little more about her past.
Lunch Hour Comix – this was a tiny-size digest collection of b/w autobiographical strips by Robert Ullman. Some were interesting, and while the heart was in the right place, I wasn’t moved all that much by it. A bit too pricey at $4.95 as well.
I also got Previews, Wizard, New Thunderbolts #3, Nightcrawler #4, Punisher Red X-Mas #1, Ultimate Elektra #5, Wolverine #23, X-Force #5, X-Men #165, Hardy Boys #2, Jingle Belle #2, JLA Classified #2, Richard Dragon #8, Solo #2, Space Ghost #2, Astonishing X-Men #7, and Wonder Woman #211.
DC 1M is tough to do thru back issues, Lou. As you recall, every DCU title tied in to the event that month (each with a #1,000,000 issue). Some of those are integral to the DC 1M story and some aren’t, but I don’t think it’s very easy to tell which is which until you read them. There is a DC 1M TPB out; maybe you could look at the contents page for that to get a handle on what the critical issues are.
BTW, like everyone ever, you’re only not a big Morrison fan because you haven’t read enough of him. 
–Cliffy
I dunno. Morrison can be hit and miss sometimes. I didn’t care for his run on X-Men much, but that was more Frank Quitely’s fault than Morrison’s. I enjoy most of his signature Animal Man run, except right at the end when it got kind-of stupid with Animal Man jaunting to the “real world” to meet his writer. His JLA run is fantastic … and I think DC One Million was one of the more interesting crossover events DC has done.
You mean, haven’t read through enough of his boring, tedious, pretentious crap before finding one or two decent things that will make you glad you waded through everything?
I have to admit, I like him better the more I read, but past We3 I might only go back and get his X-Men trades. It’s becoming clear to this former X-Man fan who gave it up for 10 or so years (and started up again with X-treme (what the hell was I thinking?)) that he’s possibly the only guy since Claremont’s run who tried to move the X-Men forward. Even reading Astonishing is like getting stuck in quicksand, pulling me back to 1993.
I’ve never seen a miss (although Mystery Play was maybe only a bloop single). He’s also responsible for Invisibles and New X-Men which are IMO amongst the top 5 comics of all time, as well as both redefining the boundaries of what comics could do (Invisibles especially). YMMV, of course, but I really think much of Morrison’s output is sophisticated and thoughtful enough to stand alongside works of great literature in a way most comics, even comics I like a lot, cannot. I learned things from reading Invisibles, and I revised my moral outlook because of the ideas presented there. I can think of maybe three other works that had that effect on me, and you better believe that none of them have pictures.
–Cliffy
Your first paragraph says no no, but your second paragraph says yes yes. Keep reading. Oh, and find me anything of his that really counts as boring, tedious, or pretentious, 'cuz I’ve never seen it.
–Cliffy
Boring: JLA Earth-2
Tedious: The Invisibles *
Pretentious: Arkham Asylum
- To be sure, I haven’t read a full issue of this. I’ve picked up the trades and flipped through and talked with my friends about it and…not doing anything for me. The conversations generally go something like this:
“Oh, it’s great, it’s like what if every conspiracy theory were true.”
“Uh huh.”
“And there’s a demon whose name is the alphabet and it keeps all of the people on earth down because they’re always using it.”
“Hm, that’s interesting.”
“And there’s this one part where they go to rob a bank (or something) and they spend like ten pages talking about what the security guard did that morning and how he loves his wife and how he’s a decent person and then they break through the wall and shoot him.”
“Get out of the car.”
Marvel’s Dracula.
A B&W mag, reprinting classic 70’s work, it is a beautiful rendition of the story.
The first Marvel mag I bought in years, & it’s not new material. Figgures.