Here it is. But my store won’t have new stuff till tomorrow, 'cause of the Holiday. sigh
Oh, and let’s welcome back Fenris to the fold! Hooray!
Ok I got a bit behind with the comics (damned unemployment!) Sombody give me the skinny on GL, Young Avengers, and New Avegers? I have the first 3 of YA and the first 4 of NA. Oh yeah, and lets not forget Atonishing. Hopefully they’ll still have some by the time I get there :smack:
New Avengers: “Let’s take the 8 or so Marvel characters that Bendis likes to write, put them in a mediocre story that moves very, veeeerrrrrryyyyyy ssssslllllooooooowwwwwlllly, write characters WAY out of character* and see how long it’ll last.” Yuck. I can’t stand this book.
Young Avengers "Hey! The Legion and Teen Titans are perennial best-sellers in DC. Let’s copy 'em (and do a pretty good job of it!)
Green Lantern: Geoff Jones “Screw all of this. I’m fixing things” (and he did!)
Astonishing: it simply is astonishing. Best damned X-book in 30 years and one of the best comics out there… Seriously.
IMO, New Avengers isn’t worth reading (I just dropped it and I have a continuous run of Avengers back to about issue 40 or so), Young Avengers is well worth reading and Green Lantern and Astonishing rock.
If you meant details of specific storylines…well, then this post won’t help ya much! 
Fenris
*Why is Wolverine channeling Flash Tompson circa 1963? And I seriously don’t buy the lame-ass justification that “Wolverine is the heart of the New Avengers just like Cap was the heart of the old Avengers”
Well I was willing to give NA a few more isshes before I droped it. I mean the idea has hella promise. A bankrupted avengers (though I have to say I’m pretty close to that and I own neither a penthouse or a fleet of cutting edge quinjets) and rebuild …OH CRAP MY COMUTHER DESK IS INFESTED WITH ANTS!..sorry bout that but I just found out that my desk has a nest of ants…I’ll be back to finish this thought later. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Ya want spoilers?
GL:
[spoiler] Hal Jordan, back from the dead and (mostly) exonerated from the crimes of Parallax is trying to put his lfie back together. He’s trying to rejoin the airforce (despite having been discharged after hitting his CO), and is living in a partially rebuilt (but still mostly deserted) Coast City. He’s discovered that his once and possibly future CO is building planes with alien tech, including Abin Sur’s ship and a (not-so) deactivated Manhunter. Hal beat up on the Manhunter until a new model showed up and claimed the sector for itself.
It’s pretty good. Not great, not yet, but safe on my list. Love the art. [/spoiler]
Astonishing X-Men:
[spoiler] The Danger Room strikes back. It’s gained sentience and is determined to carry out it’s prupose: kill the X-Men. And it’s done pretty good, so far. Put a massive hurting on our team (since it trained them itself) and is heading out to finish off Professor X. Smackdown a comin’.
Whedon’s usual fun. The “holodeck/AI on the rampage” sounds cliched, but Whedon turns “Danger” into an interesting character with good motivations. [/spoiler]
Good to see you back, Fenris.
Thanks for the updates, but I really wanted to know what happened (in astonoshing) After Big Baldie showed up.
And now I REALLY have to get GL#2, a new manhunter thing sounds like a lot fo fun.
Also the ants are now dead…I think
Sorry bout the weridness there.
Ah. Nothing yet, I think.
Damn book’s been delayed. That’s what happens when your writer is about to release a major feature film and your artist is also doing another book.
I think saying that it’s a “copy” of those titles is a rather simplistic and inaccurate description - at the very least, I feel it’s premature. But yes, it’s very good.
“copy” in the sense that “Hey! DC’s makin’ a mint with teen books! We can too!”
Just like FF was intended to copy of the Justice League back in the ‘60s and capitalize on the same trend/fad. Not in terms of characters or storytelling style, just concept. I suspect that Marvel is doing now exactly the same thing that Martin Goodwin did when he told Stan Lee "Hey! JL of A is a huge seller and makin’ National Periodicals/DC rich! Let’s do one too!"
Marvel’s been following DC’s lead for a few years now. New Avengers is apparently an attempt to mimic the success of Morrison’s JLA reboot; Identity Crisis? Identity Disk!
Oy.
Things I got:
Young Avengers #5
Green Lantern #2
Fantastic Four # - - um, whatever the number was. Second issue by JMS.
All very good.
I don’t think I’m getting anything this week.
And it goes both ways: The Wolfman/Perez Titans and the Levitz/Giffen Legions were deliberate attempts to try to copy/cash in on the huge success that Claremont/Byrne were having with the X-Men.
By the way, I love JMS’s work, normally, but when he’s off, he’s WAY off. The 9/11 attack made Doctor Doom cry like a little girl scene in Spider-Man comes to mind. To me, JMS’s take on the FF hasn’t clicked yet. The Thing is completely wrong. Totally. The Thing is a 40-year old grown-up: he wouldn’t xerox his butt, he wouldn’t send “Nyahh-Nyahh” notes to Bill Gates(?) and he certainly wouldn’t revel in his newfound wealth when Reed and Sue were having financial problems.
Generally speaking I agree with you about Straczynski being hit or miss. I even thought Rising Stars was overrated.
As far as the Thing goes, that’s not what I liked about this issue of FF, though it didn’t actually bother me either.
I was most interested in Reeds storyline. My first take on it wasn’t hopeful. So the government is trying to replicate the situation that got the FF their powers. Big deal. The Red Ghost was able to do that with a bunch of apes. But if I’m following Reed’s thoughts concerning Voyager, then there are some pretty interesting and potentially creepy posabilities here.
I’m also somewhat interested in the Social Worker checking up on Frankling being raised in an unsafe environment. 'Cause, frankly, that is an unsafe environment. Not that I expect any real threat to come from this, but I look forward to them exploring the idea.
I’m actually really enjoying Ben’s current portrayal in the FF run. It’s an interesting role reversal, and I think it’s an entirely novel situation for the Four.
A couple of the back issues I picked up at the half price sale:
GL 55-7: Unlike the TPB, #55 ends with a tie-in to Zero Hour. #56-7 take place after the big battle at Oa. Don’t you hate it when a hot alien chick makes out with you and steals your ring, then a guy with a pyrex bowl for a skull jumps into your body?
Superman/Batman#14-18: I’ve only read #14 so far. I’m excited.
The Flash #212, #217-219: I’ll be picking up the new Flash TPB eventually. #212 fills in a gap and features an awesome cover (mirror images of Mirror Master). #217-219 tie into Identity Crisis.
She-Hulk #2, 3: I’ve only read #2 so far. Its’ the most absurd thing I’ve ever read and I mean that in a good way. Great recommendation, Lou!
Firestorm: A Crisis (as in The Crisis) tie-in featuring Firehawk and Wonder Girl. I love the mid-80s Firestorm. I also picked up the first issue of the new Firestorm and wasn’t a huge fan. Does it pick up?
Today’s gonna be a large hull. I’m really looking forward to JSA. Welcome back, Fenris!
Meh. You get used to it.
–Cliffy
Hm…I’m not sure what creepy possibilities you and Reed see. Can you give me an example?
As an aside, the “We got our powers based on our psychology” thing comes from an old issue of “What If…?”. Not that this is a bad thing.
I dunno on this one–to me, it’s one of those ‘real-world’/relevant ideas that doesn’t fit the fictional universe for me:
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There is no safe environment for Frankin. How would putting him and Valeria in foster care protect them if Doom decided to do exactly the same stunt as his last attack when he possessed Valaria and sent Franklin to hell? You certainly can’t hide them well enough that Doom or Mephisto or the Supreme Intelligence couldn’t find them (and we’ve seen that Franklin is bad at the whole ‘secret identity’ thing). With the exeption of Xavier’s school, I can’t think of any environment that would be even close to the level of safety they get in the Baxter Building or with the Inhumans.
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There’s also the question of children of cops/district attorneys in Marvel–wasn’t the Punisher a cop/DA who’s family was murdered by the mob? Should all cops/DAs lose their families?
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Finally, there’s the 'elephant in the living room that I’ll bet that Marvel would love for JMS to ignore: Franklin is much more a danger to the rest of the universe than the rest of the universe is to Franklin. He’s got the power to casually create whole new universes and dimensions without trying (that whole "Heroes Reborn thing), he’s got the power to banish Mephisto, and, IIRC, he can destroy the universe ( FF#127 or so). His powers are currently gone, but let’s face it, they’e been “permanantly” destroyed/turned off/removed before and they’ll be back again. When his powers get out of control, who’s it safer for Franklin to be with? Reed and Sue who can shut 'em off or fix 'em or at least ‘talk him down’ or some strangers he’s been dumped with?
I can give you the thoughts that ran through my mind. See, Reed’s musings on our use of Voyager as an attempt to communicate with another alien species made me think that somehow the “cosmic radiation” might have been (for lack of another word) “rays” sent out by another species as a different attmept to communicate. Which brings to mind a host of tantalizing posibilities and ramifications.
Keeping in mind, of course, that I am notoriously bad in predicting where a story is going.
Not a bad thing in itself, but personally, I’m tired of this idea. It gets trotted out far too often.
Regarding the other plot - the reasons you are uncertain about it are exactly why I like it. Yes, Frankling has phenominal cosmic powers (sometimes (and honestly I’m also tired of the Franklin-ex-Mahina)), but it’s not like the idea of child safety is one that would just get ignored simply because the story takes place in the Marvel universe. All the points you bring up are probably why nothing will come of the situation, but I do enjoy watching them bat around the idea. We’ve seen how being in a superhero universe effects lots of other aspects of daily life, why not at least raise the issue here?
I don’t have my books yet, but I too look forward to JSA. And probably several other books, though I can’t remember what else I’m supposed to get today.
As far as Child Protective Services’ concern for the Richards’ children, it’s true that there’s no truly safe place for them. The safest possible place is in their parents’ home, where if danger erupts they conveniently can be popped into the time machine and sent 20 minutes into the future. The issue is, how do you get the CPS bureaucracy to understand and accept this? CPS is trying to act in the kids’ best interest, but they’re WAY out of their league there. Way way way out. But try telling the government that and see how far it gets you. I can’t see how this would be a new issue in their universe, but has it ever been addressed like this before? That’s not a rhetorical question; I actually don’t know.
Is anybody else having trouble giving much of a crap about House of M? I doubt it will have any lasting effects in the Marvel Universe, so it’s basically just a sprawling “What If” story. I’m far more interested in what’s happening in DC’s Crisis these days. I barely give House of M a thought after I close the book, but DC has me wondering and caring how it turns out. Meanwhile, Marvel has some variant covers they want to show you. Welcome back to the early '90s, which of course are synonymous with bankruptcy for Marvel. Excellent business plan, guys.