Weekly Comic Book Discussion 2/12/2009 - Boxed spoilers

Cafe Society
1

Um…that’s what the consensus seemed to be, right? Box this week’s book’s spoilers?

Heh–we don’ need no mod action to agree. We’re all nerds here. If the discussion gets really heated, we’ll just break out the ol’ 12-sided dice. :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok

Fables 81:

GodDAMN this is a good book. Frankly, and I’m goin’ to hell for sayin’ this, it’s far better than Sandman. Sandman had some terrible arcs (I still don’t get “A Game of You”, and a lot of the one-shot issues in the Inn (the one that had the Prez story) were only so-so. I loved Sandman, don’t get me wrong, but this (to me) is SO much better–in large part because Willingham seems to have had the bigger story all mapped out in advance while Gaiman was winging it for the first 30 or so issues (and those early issues were, overall, better to me). Fables, if not my favorite comic ever, is certainly in the top 10.

Superman: Alura makes some good points about Zod. I hope Superman is wrong: it’d be more interesting if Allura was correct about Zod, IMO.


Essentially "What was Zod’s actual CRIME, Kal-El? He rebelled against the Science Council when they lobotomized his friend. And then continued to rebel when they wouldn’t listen to your dad about building space-arks. So who’s the bad guy here? She’s got a point.

Batman: The first of the two Gaiman issues. I don’t know where he’s going with this. So far, I’m not overwhelmed, but Gaiman is wonderful at pulling rabbits out of hats. And he very well could here. I enjoyed Alfred’s story, but Selina’s ending made no sense. Totally out of the blue. I also have to say, that since they gave that title to the book, (Whatever happened to The Caped Crusader), they’re inviting parallels with the Moore Superman story. And this first part can’t hold a candle to Moore’s. That bit at the end of the first part of Moore’s story (“Supergirl…Supergirl is in…the past”/…it looked like he’d been crying) was one of the most emotionally affecting scenes I’ve ever read. This didn’t compare. And I generally prefer Gaiman to Moore. (And I’m not writing Gaiman off yet either. He may still pull off a masterpiece)

G.L. Corps: Eh. So-so story and WAY too wordy.

Trinity: Nothing happens but something MIGHT. So that’s kind of a step forward, right?

More later.

2

REBELS is interesting-I’m liking it more than I expected to. I never cared for the whole L.E.G.I.O.N. concept–felt it diluted the real Legion. This is fun so far though. Artist made an error though: He drew the reboot Brainy 5. Supergirl’s never met that version of Brainy 5, only the Threeboot version. No big deal, but an oopsie nevertheless.

Titans: Eh. Not real sure why I’m even getting it at this point.

Booster Gold: Completely lacking the sense of fun from the earlier issues. I suspect this book’ll be dead by issue 25. Which is a shame, 'cause the first 12 issues or so rocked.

3

REBELS

[spoiler]eh? That’s the threeboot Brainy’s original facial circuitry, at least. The reboot Brainy has the three Braniac circles on his forehead as his. Although, flipping through recent LSH issues, it looks like they dropped his facial circuitry when he changed costumes.

More importantly – the threeboot Brainy is not the descendant of Vril Dox. The threeboot LSH is not from Earth-0… at least, according to the most recent L3W.[/spoiler]

4

[spoiler]Well, except that the first thing Zod did after escaping the Phantom Zone was try to take over Earth. It’d be kind of shortsighted for Superman to overlook that incident. Unless it’s been written out of continuity already?

Speaking of which, what happened to Non’s beard? I don’t have the relevant issues to hand, but when they escaped the Zone, he had a thick black Hercules beard like his movie counterpart. Now he’s suddenly clean-shaven with a brown crewcut? [/spoiler]

The inking for this issue of Action is fairly alarming, innit?

HERE IS MY FACE

5

Lightray: you’re right. I got the two sets of markings mixed up.

Oh, one other thing on the Batman. I like Andy Kubert, but damn in this issue his style (maybe due to the inker? I don’t have it handy) looks EXACTLY like Alan Davis. This isn’t a bad thing-if you have to ape someone, Davis is a good choice…but very, VERY weird to see Kubert’s name attached.

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The best thing about Batman was Alfred’s story. That was well awesome.

7

Thanks for starting it, Fenris. I’m on vacation this week and got distracted. :slight_smile:

8

MI-13 has just hit that transcendental level of ridiculousness that only superhero comics can properly pull off. Vampire missiles launched from the moon.

The whole New Krypton arc is kind of depressing, in how plausible it all feels. Xenophobic humans+xenophobic Kryptonians==one big mess, where each side appears to prove the other right. And Clark and Kara are caught in the middle. I do wonder what’s going to happen with Mon-El, in face of the ‘no Kryptonians’ thing.

‘But I’m Daxamite!’ ‘Yeah, yeah, likely story…’

9

Secret Six: Finally got to find out who Junior is:

Ragdoll’s sister. Underwhelming.. Other than that, kinda fun.

And I agree, MI13 is just weird enough to work.
Got same stuff as some others. Same feeling.

10

I keep forgetting to comment on REBELS…

Loved it (if you know me, that should be obvious, though. >_>) except for Dox’s exceedingly nazi-esque uniform. Although it is fairly fitting for Dox, with him as the hero in this case, it’s somewhat unfortunate.

On another point, I’m thinking he really needs to either give up on the whole LEGION thing, or else not get close to anybody…this is the second time he’s had LEGION stolen out from under him because he let someone get close to him - first his son, then Silica.

11

Finally finished my stack for the week. And I have a question about Agents of Atlas…does anybody know who the hell Marko is?

The ‘facefull of webbing’ thing suggests Sandman (Flint Marko), but the fact that he appears to be a superstrong, but physically normal, human suggests Juggernaut (Cain Marko). The build and personality could be either, the hair is wrong for both.

Either way I doubt being eaten by Lao will be the end of him (and either of those should have been able to get out before being swallowed, really).

12

Didn’t read the issue in question, but Juggy has tangled with Spider-Man on a few occasions…

13

Man Mountain Marko

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… How many unrelated characters named Marko does Marvel HAVE?

Thanks, holmes. For a less obscure Marko than Sandman or Juggy, I can buy Lao being the end of him. An ignoble end for a fairly obscure character.

15

Note the MM on his jacket, man.

Anyhow, Fenris: Note the continuity shredding in the Batman issues. All eras of Batman are present. Selena’s story is the story of The Cat, circa 193X. Not Earth-2 Catwoman, but the actual 1930s one. The pet shop existed, IIRC. Jarvis’ origin matches a different era… and note that his Joker matches covers of the 40s and 50s Joker stories. Genie Joker, the Crying Joker, all that.
Notice the Joker who pays the kid to watch the car… and then notice the TAS Joker with Harley inside.
Notice one really scary thing. What dollar did Harvey give the kid to watch his car with? Not two dollars. One dollar. Watch his hand.