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1. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeJul 16th 2010

    
   No new comics?! Gah! I'd rather read Amazons Attack than nothing.
2. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeJul 16th 2010

    
   Ooh, new page!
3. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeJul 16th 2010

    
   Matt Fraction's Casanova: reading parts of this felt like reading about Lamont talking to Lamont. I think it was great, but I need to read it again. Before I decide you should all buy a copy from OK and see what y'all think.
4. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
   • CommentTimeJul 17th 2010

    
   hey Midnighter! Kraven's Last Hunt is ace! I bought that from OK last year and its one of thes bestest Spiderman stories I have ever ever read. Man, Spiderman was good in the '80s!
   
   I'm never quite sure where I stand with IDWs Transformers stuff. Furman's careful plotting comes to a huge rushed and messy end in Revelation. The dead universe stuff he was throwing out there was dull and disappointing (and recycled from his earlier unloved Necrowar series from dreamwave - with art by Adi Granov!) and his characterisation for 90% of the Transformers was so broad as to render the cahracters largely interchangeable. A shame after the strong start of Infiltration and escalation and those early Spotlights. All Hail Megatron (which rebooted - sort of- their continuity) is better than i expected, but is hamstrung by then having all these references to Furman's run thrown in. The coda issues to AHM have been an unwanted and embarrassing excercise in explaining away all the continuity goofs and gaps created by All Hail Megatron, including (of all things) the origins of Kup's cigar! Jesus, did anyone really need to know this? can't they just be happy with it being a humourous little visual gag? No, because Transformers fans seem to have no sense of humour and bombarded IDWs boards with messages on this subject. Crikey Moses. The ongoing has been unspectacular, after an interesting set of opening issues, though Prime exiling himself is just weird. The general lack of editorial control (i don't think they actually read their owen comics) mean there's even now, still silly things cropping up that don't square with what came earlier. Post 2008, there's only been Last Stand Of The Wreckers that's got it right - and it feels terribly anachronistic as a result as its actually very very good and up there with the best stuff Marvel ever put out.
5. • CommentAuthorMidnighter
   • CommentTimeJul 17th 2010

    
   I'd been buying the single issues, reading them then selling them and buying the trades to keep, but dropped the monthlies a few months ago (around #5 of the ongoing series), the whole thing really does read better collected and in proper order, rather than the order they were released (Same with Siege, I didn't read a single issue until it had all been released and read it in order, makes more sense then!).
   
   AHM had massive pacing problems, but I think when read collected, as flawed as the story itself is, that won't seem the case a sit will just be one big story rather than monthly snippets.
   
   As for the newer stuff, I read the first 5 issues as they came out and it was "ok", but reading all 6 issue sin the collection was way more enjoyable. I like the slower pace it's started with and having Thundercracker (I think) question how a race called "transformers" find it hard to evolve has been a long time coming. The Bumblebee series was half ok, half terrible, but I loved the art (as much as I love all the other artists involved it was nice to see a Transformers comic that actually looks like a comic and not have art that looks like a still from a cartoon). LSOTW I only got to #3 but can't wait to read the rest in the trade, so far it's the nearest we've had to the good old UK stuff. My main problem with it all though is figuring out where it all fits together, I shouldn't need to go online to know that LSOTW #1 is set before ongoing #1 and LSOTW #2 is set concurrently with ongoing #2 or whatever and so on. Just make one ongoing series with multiple plot threads and take 12 issues to tell the story rather than split it over 3 series.
   
   Could be worse, Pat Lee could still be involved.
6. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
   • CommentTimeJul 18th 2010

    
   I've given up worrying about continuity and just enjoy things (or not) for what they are. I think this why, unlike some of the Transfans on some of the forums i frequent, I have no real beef with DeCosta's writing on the ongoing. My only complaint being that these interesting asides don't go anywhere - or at least they don't seem to be. We have the main drive of the rudderless Autobots and Decepticons, and then these great little vignettes like the Thundercracker issue that hint at interesting directions that never come.
7. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeJul 25th 2010

    
   Here's a way you can help OK Comics and help yourself!
   
   1) Go to OK.
   2) Buy Deadpool Corps #4.
   3) Flick through to the full-page picture of new character, Broken Blade.
   4) After you've stopped giggling at the sheer Liefeldness of the image, check out her waist and swords.
   5) Laugh for quite a bit.
8. • CommentAuthorgreg75
   • CommentTimeJul 26th 2010

    
   I'm afraid i have done the unthinkable everyone.I'd been collecting comics again since 2000 and i'd got about a 1000 all in comic bags but unfortunately due to my relationship breaking up "you're just a big kid they're not real y'know"and moving in to a room only i had to get rid of the 4 longboxes so i put ads in the papers on e-bay and not one person wanted them(bearing in mind that i live burton/derby area)so in the end i put them on freecycle and gave them all away.I thought i would feel something but no the prices of comics today(what are the regular titles now?£2.00 each?)have got me very disillusioned with keeping hold of comics(i had the 90's Green Lantern whole series and the entire 90's Flash among others)and i think how silly i was to waste all that money thinking i would be able to sell once i'd got the whole run.The problem is when i was a kid you could get 20 comics for a fiver now you can get two.There's no encouragement for kids nowadays to read new stuff or start collecting and thats what saddens me.Don't get me wrong it won't put me off reading still and i'll still keep buying the fifty quid boxes of 2-300 comics off e-bay but there's no reason to keep them anymore once i've read them then i'll give them away.
9. • CommentAuthorLee
   • CommentTimeJul 26th 2010

    
   I said to a mate at lunch that, for me, the point of a collection is the collection, rather than its quality or re-sale value or whatever. Just having my longboxes full of comics gives me an odd sense of gratification. Plus, imagining a day when they're all catalogued gives mean extra reason to live...
10. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2010

     
    Collecting anything for its potential to be worth something is a fools errand. I've probably halved, or even quartered my comic collection from what it was, just keeping the ones I know I'll never get tired of reading and rereading. I've ebayed comics in the past, and its a struggle to shift them. Unless its soemthing with a relatively high profile, you may as well forget it. Same with my rather unwieldly toy collections. I'm down to just under 400 Transformers now ( I think it peaked at about 900), and of the ones I sold on (which were, granted more modern ones), only a small percentage made a profit. The rest struggled to break even. Lego is funny though, that goes for quite frightening sums, particularly the Town/City themed stuff of any era. I think my '80s Castle collection is worth something close to a grand now. Madness.
11. •  
      CommentAuthorRob
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2010

     
    The only comic I made a decent profit on was Spider-Man Reign #1 - the first printing with the 'controversial' panel:
    http://sequentiallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2006/12/full-monty.html
    I didn't even like the comic, just picked it up because I buy the first issue of anything that catches my eye. Most comics I've enjoyed but don't want to re-read are now essentially worthless - I gave a big box away to a mate during a recent clear-out.
    
    Everyone should be reading The Bulletproof Coffin, by the way - it's the best superhero book since Sliced-Bread-Man. The comic-within-a-comic bit is awesome too.
12. • CommentAuthorNimbus Thitherward
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2010

     
    I sold all my Valiants (the original Shooter produced runs) when they were "hot". They were (upto now) the only part of my collection that I have sold and they paid for my Amiga 1200 with hard drive & graphics card.
13. • CommentAuthorNimbus Thitherward
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2010 edited

     
    And I know it isn't a comic, but I've just finished reading the first issue of IDW's re-vamped Famous Monsters Of Filmland (#251). Whilst not as essential a read as Monsters From The Vault, it's a well produced, square bound magazine whose latest issue has a nice balance of features covering new (Predators) & old (Karl Freund) horror, that should prove attractive enough to entice anyone with a casual interest in Horror films.
    
    Nimbus says support OK. There was one left on the shelf. Buy it before someone else does.
14. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2010

     
    Tra La! Captain Si reviews some things!
    
    Birds Of Prey # 3 - Confused me as a goodly chunk of it is actually Batgirl #12, so some hilarity has obviously occurred at the printers. Boo! can I swap it?
    
    Batgirl # 12 - Stanley Lau's cover is lovely. He's done the covers for the last few issues and they are all great. Anyway, this issue wraps up the jolly romp with the Calculator. Lots of brain fighting with Oracle and Calculator, a rotting corpse, and big techno-watsit and an amusing plane crash make this a big ball of fun! And Wendy gets over herself and becomes 'Proxy' to look out for Batgirl, (possibly so Oracle can go off and be in Birds Of Prey) and there's a new villain person lurking! ooh! I really really love this. Its just good, simple and fun.
    
    Batman & Robin #13 - This is more like it! And Frazer Irving too! Now that the return of Bruce Wayne is kicking into gear elsewhere, so things seem to be finally getting interesting in this title. Shame that it looks like this is setting up a permanent end for Dick & Damien. Dispite my misgivings of the series overall, their verbal sparring and wary relationship has been the continuing highlight of the book and made for the most interesting (and real) Batman & Robin I've ever read. I hope thats a blank, but I doubt it :(
    
    The Invincible Iron Man # 28 - Nice Mignola-esque cover from Larocca this issue! This book is still bloody fantastic. I like that this is more about Stark's struggles to become a more social enterprise than before, and that Hammer are continually putting the boot in and being sneaky f**ks! Fraction writes this book beautifully, and all the characters in the book are blessed with great characterisation. There's two scenes in this book that I love - the one with the assembling of the talent, and Maria Hill's catch up with Tony. Beautiful. And then there's the last page, with l'il Pepper, lying in a hospital bed with a glowing chest and a big smile on her face. Squeeee! :D
    
    Black Widow # 4 - I am eternally grateful for Majorie Liu making Black Widow's long and complex life, so easy to get a handle on with a few choice lines of dialogue, a few flashback clips and some nice interaction with her friends and foes. That its all wrapped up in mystery and continues to move things forward without tripping over its own continuity is a minor miracle also. Its quite a bleak, suspensful read, but I like it, and its not without some flashes of black humour. Great stuff. And artist Daniel Acuna is rapidly becoming a new favourite of mine too!
    
    Doctor Who Magazine # 424 (now a Guiness World Record holder, don't you know, being the longest running Magazine based on a TV show. Or something like that! Take that, Star Wars!). This issue's strip is one of those self-contained humourous throwaway entries that frequently pop up these days. Its bright and breezy, but it doesn't quite work.Why? Well, it features song and dance routines (Music is something that i don't find really comes across very well in a silent medium like comics , except in Scott Pilgrim, oddly...), which whilst witty, seems a bit out of place when some of the characters die horrifically. There's also a weird narative curveball when one of locals takes a shine to the robotic Muse appropros of nothing which sticks out. This and the last strip adventure haven't been terribly great. Hopefully, better things will emerge as the writers get to grips with this new Doctor, certainly, its not up to the tricksy writing of the TV show. Yet.
15. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2010

     
    And the wooden spoon this month goes to ....
    
    Transformers # 9 - Oh, IDW. What are you doing? Yes, pandering to Simon Furman's epic excesses wasn't a good thing (Dead Universe? Dead Dull!), but the meandering mish-mash of half formed 'new directions' and continuity fluffs and general confusing jumble that this book has now become make this a disappointing read, month in month out. I can't understand how they can go wrong with something so simple and pure as big robots hitting each other. But they do, time and again. The current storyline of a morose Optimus Prime held captive at his own request smacks of a writer (like many before him) who simply doesn't know how to write for Prime and make him interesting, resulting in an annoying sidelining of the character. If you were coming to this cold, you'd wonder why Optimus Prime was such a great military leader, because on this evidence, its a wonder he made it through the Autobot's first major campaign. The Combaticons being allied with North Korea and er, Kim Jong Dum (yes, really) is interesting, but is wasted with a needless nine page opening sequence of them shooting soldiers. Meanwhile, it turns out that US military special ops group Skywatch are actually supposed to be working with the Autobots in secret! We find this out as the President of the USA gives an address saying that any nation harbouring Cybertronian fugitives will be treated as terrorists! This wouldn't be a problem, but only two issues ago, Spike was please-beseeching the top military brass and government officals of the need to work WITH the Autobots in tracking down the Decepticons. Sigh. Oh, and Guido Guidi has a rare off day on the art chores this issue. It would seem that after asking Don Figureoa to redesign the 1980s cast of this book to more closely resemble the Live Action Movie designs, which successive artists have emulated, they now want a return to the original 1980s designs used in their earlier All Hail Megatron series (which were at odds with the more modern day alternate modes used when IDW originally launched their reboot of Transformers). Guido had already drawn the entire book using Don's desgins and then had to hastily redraw twleve pages of the book at the eleventh hour. F**k knows whats going on with Bumblebee though, who looks like he now transforms into a shoe rack. I just wish IDW would stop allowing themselves to be dictated to by the whims of nosiy message boards and just get on with writing good comics. The sooner they give Last Stand Of The Wrecker's James Roberts & Nick Roche more writing duties, the better.
16. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010

     
    Blimey! Take a breath there, Cap'n Si!
    
    1) R.e. song and a dance routines in comics - do you like the Grant/Wagner ones? They used to do them intermittently in 2000AD when I read it. And there's that chapter of The Last American (by John Wagner, Alan Grant and M*I*K*E M*C*M*A*H*ON - copies probaaly available from OKComics). Actually they just used to chuck in a Forsyth eventually whatever they were writing if the urge gripped them. I quite liked them.
    
    2) Big robots hitting things - Have you ever read Shogun Warriors from Marvel? This was MY big robots hitting things comic when I was a wee one. They hit Godzilla and S.H.I.E.L.D. and other big robots. Stuff blew up. You know the drill. Herb Trimpe drew it. It was probably terrible but don't tell my memory, it will cry!
17. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2010

     
    Oh yeah, Greg75!
    I read DC Universe Legacies #3 and guess who showed up? Cave Carson! No word of a lie. Apparently he's an adventurous "spelunker". I'm surprised that was legal back then. Anyway, he looked trim, looked good. Y'know for a guy who was going to get both legs broken in the future. Maybe he chose the wrong person to spelunk. Keeps us informed of your E-Bay hauls, I always like to know what gems you've unearthed. Case in point: I doubt I would have enjoyed Cave Carson's appearance so much if you hadn't primed me. I already did the spelunking joke, right? Thought so.
18. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2010

     
    I just read a few of the current Avengers titles and I enjoyed them all, so there. However, so far as I can tell Wolverine is now in two or three X teams, two Avengers teams and a couple of solo books. That's silly. The only sensible thing that can be done is a Wolverine vs Deadpool 12-issue series...
    
    I also just read the latest Thunderbolts and am enjoying the new team.
    
    I'm in the middle of Scott Pilgrim 2, which I'm enjoying.
    
    Is there anything I'm not enjoying I imagine I can hear you ask?
    
    Yes: all the World War Hulks stuff is crap, but that shall not stop me buying it? OK COMICS FOREVER!!!
19. • CommentAuthorAHZ
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2010

     
    This week I've read:
    
    Slaine: The Horned God (finally it's been on my shelf for months it seems)
    
    Which was really good, I love Simon Bisley's art especially the more emotive character portraits like Ukko and Slaine written by Pat Mills is always good.
    
    Hellblazer: Hooked
    
    More art from Simon Bisley, his covers are stunning and I've yet to read a Hellblazer book that isn't worth reading. John Constantine is one of the best characters in comics.
    
    Just got Bombqueen Omnibus(t) Volume 1 which I haven't got 'round to reading yet.
20. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 4th 2010

     
    just finished reading who's who update'89 why haven't they done an update since the early 90's?when was the latest marvel universe updated also?
21. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 4th 2010

     
    Marvel did a few universe updates about four years ago.
22. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2010

     
    were they the card ones though?if you e-mail dc comics are you likely to get a reply?
23. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2010

     
    just got essential x-factor vol 2 from library
24. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 6th 2010

     
    um, might be talking at cross purposes Greg. the marvel universe thingies i'm thinking of are the character profiles with a biography of the character, the skills, abilities and weakenesses. Is that not what you mean? The early 2000s saw marvel publish a range of encyclopedias (i have a marvel knights one) as well that performed the same function. the universe stuff they published was in standard comic format and included a lot of Marvel UK and other forgotten characters (presumably trotted out so Marvel can retain the copyrights and trademarks). i think you'd have better luck joining dc's forum. i'm sure there'd be some soul on there who'd be able to answer your question.
25. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2010 edited

     
    I bought these from OKComics and then I read them. Pigeons be damned!
    
    Batman:Odyssey #1 by Neal “The Real Deal” Adams (with Mr. Michael “Micronauts!” Golden inking pages 19 & 20)
    In which Prof. Neal Adams returns to Batman comics after many decades and overcompensates enormously with an apparent total lack of editorial interference. This results in a comic that is sloppy, discordant, contradictory, muddled, nigh incomprehensible and overall a massive blast of insane fun. If you thought All Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder was too coherent and restrained then, bubba, Mr. Neal Adams is here to feed your need! Best line: “They’ll save lives today.” Or is it “It’s more than slick, Boy Blunder. It’s James Bond cubed.” Oh, there are so many. This should be bobbins but I’m a child of twelve again…a child of eight!
    
    Tom Strong And The Robots of Doom #2
    In this pulse pounding issue: Gird your nerves as Tom Strong is forced to box his Nazi son in a nightmarish Aryan future! Cover your mother’s eyes as Stalin’s severed head is held high by the victorious Ubermensch! Tremble before the might of the robotic vermin The Dero in their underground domain! Active action! Thrilling thrills! Supple pulp! And after all that the spot-on tip-top character interaction is the best bit(s). Pneuman showing robots can have a soul! Tom Strong taking a moment to hold his baby daughter! Infant Solomon being an adorable wee ape! Outlandish ideas grounded in realistic characterisation can only mean one thing: Good comic! Best line: “Put them <ptik>RIGHT.” Brains ands brawn. Heart and Soul. Tom Strong!
    
    Jonah Hex #57
    This was great. There's a lovely cartoony (as in Looney Tunes) feel to the first part as a kid regales his brother with an adventure he heard about this here Jonah Hex fella. Anyways, the kids hear old Jonah's in town and they creep out under cover of the night to set their own eyes on this figure of legend and shadow. Unsurprisingly Ma Hex's eldest is likkered up and the kids are caught between Jo-Jo and a band of DC's finest Western characters (namely Bat Lash, The Trigger Twins, Scalphunter, Nighthawk and Cinammon; that fill your plate?) who are all intent on the same bounty. Everything gets sorted aright in the end although noses are broken, shots are fired and a certain scar faced boing eyed bounty hunter tackles a horse to the ground with his own bare hands. It's sweet, funny (The Hex/Scalphunter interaction is a real pants wetter) and totally deserving of the title Tall Tales. Which is the title it has. Best line: "No one in their right mind goes looking for you, Jonah Hex." True dat. Oh yeah, Bernet drew it so the art is just dandy.
    
    Comics!
26. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2010

     
    With the door locked and the phone off the hook I lubed up my mind with:
    
    Black Kiss
    Story and Art By Howard Victor Chaykin
    Lettering by Ken Bruzenak
    Dynamite Entertainment
    B&W Hardback, 136pp, £14.99
    
    “This was totally unnecessary…” Beverly Grove
    
    Newly paroled jazz afficiando Cass Pollack, A Chaykin everyschmuck par excellence, lets his little head do the thinking and just may not live to regret it as the Hell beneath the veneer of Los Angeles licks its lips and prepares to give him a very black kiss indeed.
    
    Often referred to as a mere porn comic Black Kiss is something far more interesting. That something being an attempt to reclaim porn as just another genre and to filter it through the conventions of other genres such as crime or even horror. A kind of missing link between De Palma’s trashtastic cinematic failure Body Double and Alan Moore’s attempt to elevate porn via Lost Girls. In the black comedy American Psycho Patrick Bateman’s favourite film is Body Double, I’ve always thought it not unlikely that his favourite comic could well have been Black Kiss. If you take my meaning.
    
    Startlingly for a porno Black Kiss is About Stuff. There’s a fairly clear and scabrous attack on those who let their influences overpower their individuality. Also I may be forcing this one in but Pollack’s path is clearly one of expanding awfulness. Like the common perception of the addicts fall. A bit like starting out with the innocuous airbrushed ladies of Nuts and before you know it waking up one morning to find your PC full of scat videos and the FBI outside your house in a white van. There’s a reason Cass Pollack is a recovering substance abuser is all I’m saying.
    
    So yeah, it’s a porn comic but it’s a porn comic that’s executed with all the style , depth and craft of Howard Victor Chaykin in 1988. And 1988 is arguably when HVC was at the height of his majestic powers (i.e. post American Flagg!, The Shadow: Blood And Judgement and Blackhawk but pre New Avengers). It’s also a porn comic that just starts out as a porn comic and ends as, well, why don’t you find that out for yourself, handsome? My, is it hot in here or is it just me...
    
    Oh, and it’s funny as all get out.
    
    Verdict: Is gut, ja?
27. • CommentAuthorBrigantian
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2010

     
    Just got the whole run of Lucifer together in collected form (my part in the save your local comic store campaign). Read odd volumes years ago but never read the whole run. I just hope it's as good as my perception of it. Did the same thing earlier this year with Preacher and loved it start to finish. The Invisibles is next on my series hit list.
28. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 16th 2010

     
    Just reading Essential X-Factor vol 2 then I have Essential Spider-Woman vol 2 to read and then Essential Werewolf By Night vol 2.Also just finished reading the collected Blade's new series where he fights Doom and kills Santa Claus did I miss something though?The first page shows him fighting Spider-Man as a vampire.The Outsiders-The Snare and I also still have Trinity vol 2 to read.Has the newish Suicide squad series been put into trade yet?
29. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 16th 2010

     
    Ah, Greg75 you are Mr. Volume 2! And yet in a startling occurrence of the unfortunate you have not read Blade Vol.2! Which is an oversight of nigh tragical proportions. For within the covers of Vol.2 you will find the answers to your questions regarding Spider-vampire and Blade’s kneecapping thereof.
    
    I read issue 5 of Shade The Changing Man by Steve “D is for” Ditko and diverse hands. It is from the ‘70s and it is not entirely as other comics. Or indeed anything else. It features my new favourite embodiment of Evil - the Supreme Decider (although his close friends and relatives call him “Sude”). The Supreme Decider takes the form of a large globe with a mouth filled with giant teeth, he has two boggly eyes with leaf shaped flaps atop them and although legless he does possess two long spindly arms which are mounted by giant gloved hands allowing genuflection and gesticulation in the dashing Ditko manner. Obviously Sude is not real as that would be mental. No, he is of course a suit worn by a wheelchair bound man who seeks to wreak vengeance upon Rac Shade (Rac! Shade!) for the loss of both his own mobility and that of his spouse, said loss occurring as a result of an explosion for which Rac Shade has (it appears unjustly) been blamed. Sude is also the father of Rac Shade’s ex fiancé Mellu Loron (Mellu! Loron!), who is naturally now inclined to kill Rac Shade for the bodily modifications her parents have unwillingly received. I can tell your mind is already glazed over at this point but we haven’t even touched upon the Meta-Zone, The Zero-Zone, the Area of Madness, the Miraco-Vest, Wizor, Lenu…
    
    Ah, Steve Ditko. Liked ping pong when he was younger. Ditko-fact!
30. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 17th 2010

     
    I read DC Universe Legacies #3 because the sound of its neglected weeping was creeping me out.
    
    Mr. Jose Luis “Garcia Lopez” Garcia Lopez is inked here by Mr. David “Powerman” Gibbons. It’s…okay but I have to say, hand on heart, that I was a bit disappointed. The lovely clean precision of JLGL is somewhat blunted by DG’s broader style. I mean don’t get me wrong (Don’t. Don’t ever do that!) it is an entirely predictable result that I could have anticipated had I just thought of how their two styles might mesh. But I didn’t. Damn my eyes. My hateful eyes!
    
    Anyway this one covers DC’s lamest heroes! Which is ace because obviously DC’s Lamest Heroes get very little attention as the are lame-orrific! Well, okay, they aren’t really lame but they are the ones that are a bit neglected. I like ‘em though. So this one takes place when the Justice Society disbanded due to Congressional Hearings (Is that a Roy Thomas Ret-con? ) and there was a brief period in comic land when capes and powers were in short supply. Basically in the real world people were just sick to the back teeth of ‘em. Super heroes? Geddoudaheah! Why I aughtta! So yeah, there were awesome Western heroes such as the Trigger Twins (making their second appearance in my reading life following Jonah Hex. What’s up DC? Trademark about to lapse?) and special guy groups like The Challengers of The Unknown (Four men in purple jumpsuits who live together on an island and treat ladies with suspicion and derision? What?).
    
    So there was a pretty wide range of characters but none of them really caught on and eventually Super heroes came back and everyone realised they were wrong and that superheroes were just the bestest and they never, ever, ever went away again. So this ends with the JLA turning up to fight Starro! Hurrah! Superheroes! For ever! The bit that caught in the windmills of my mind in this issue was where The Batman turns up, kicks some thug into a vat of acid (thus obviously killing him) and swings off all “Yeah, well, if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. My work here is done! Ciao!” I think it is important to remember that back in The Golden Age The Batman was a mental killer.
    
    It’s nicely written in that old-school restrained and a bit predictable way by Len “In It To Win It” Wein. This nicely brings back the flavour of those old-timey comics while smoothing over the, ahem, stylistic deficiencies. It’s a nice decent read with lovely art by some real dreamy guys is what it is.
    
    Oh, lunchtime is over! Remember: The Bat-man - mental killer!
31. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2010

     
    I must admit Lamont I prefer the 70's Rac Shade to Vertigo's.Did he not turn up in the 80's/90's Suicide Squad run as well?Also on book 7 of Y The Last Man.Will i weep when i get to the final book or shall i say Yea and allow applause to continue into the night and beyond...
32. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2010

     
    And you are right to prefer the '70s Rac Shade, Greg75! Nothing wrong with the Vertigo Rac Shade, mind you, but if you want entry to The Weird the door marked "Ditko" is usually the surest bet. If that's locked the one marked "Milligan" is viable.
    
    Sadly I was in error above, I read issue 4 not 5. If I had read issue 5 (which I did the night after) I would have realised the the true identity of The Supreme Decider (AKA Sude) was not in fact Yellow Moron's dad! Wrongfooted by The Ditko! Of interest to no one - I dug these comics out of my garage while conducting a great culling and found I only have issues 4,5,6 and 8 of Shade The Changing Man. That's okay. These days I quite like picking up random comics and enjoying them in and of themselves, it may sound odd but it's quite neat. Continuity is a curse! Of course I will have to complete my collection of Shade The Changing Man (Ditko flava) I'm not that laid back yet. Deet-ko!
    
    I've never read Suicide Squad or Y The Last Man so more informed minds than mine own will have to advise you on these latter points, Greg75.
33. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2010 edited

     
    Thor The Mighty Avenger
    Issues 1 to 3 by Roger Langridge (writes), Chris Samnee (draws) and Matt Wilson (colours). Marvel Comics (hungers).
    £2.25 each.
    
    Danger! Drama! Humour! Romance! Mystery! Loki! Stuff getting hit! Pottery mishaps! Giant Man and the Wasp! Rainbows!
    
    Mortals, attend me now for I have words of great import to hail down upon thine ears! Marvel hath produced a fine and sturdy Thor comic, a comic fit to be toasted by The Kirby and The Simonson in the land of Greatthorstorieshelme.
    Heed me well, this is quite simply one of the best comics I have read lately. It is a quality product from soup to nuts. Industry vet Langridge seemingly effortlessly provides a narrative broth chunky with events and characterisation that nicely balances fun and threat.
    
    Chris Samnee provides art which in no small part supports and enhances Langridge's fine work. It's hard to look at Samnee's visual excellence and think of anything other than a sturdy Kirby framework draped with an elegant rug of Toth, so I won't bother. Kirby, Toth and a little something extra? Chris Samnee - superstar in waiting. I kid thee not.
    
    Obviously this comic hasn't really got a chance. What with the staggering overproduction of titles and the Adephagia inspired prices titles like Thor The Mighty Avenger that aren't by "White Hot Talents" or that don't "Matter" wither swiftly upon the vine. The fact that this tendency encourages the survival of titles which encourage rickets in the bones of the imagination should be apparent to all and thus all should heed the call to fight this foul trend. By buying Thor The Mighty Avenger mainly.
    
    Thor The Mighty Avenger - I say thee, YAY!
    
    So say we all?
34. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2010

     
    Well, I bought TTMA #1 and thought it was pretty ok, but it seems to be a slightly pointless and out-of-continuity book so I decided not to bother. Which was possibly a terrible idea, which I compounded by buying World War Hulks mini series...
35. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 22nd 2010

     
    ...but rather than read that, I've been making sure I can feel smug when I go see Scott Pilgrim by being able to say I've read it and thus am morally superior to the cinema-going peasantry that haven't. Or something.
    
    Just finished volume three. I feel very sorry for Knives Chau (17 years old). She's sweet.
36. •  
      CommentAuthorOK Comics
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    I met a comic retailer in Canada who refused to stock Scott Pilgrim because the lead character is a Paedophile... although I don't think he does anything more than hold hands with Knives.
    The guy went on to sing the praises of Preacher, which features more sex and violence than any other comic I can think of (except Crossed)... but apparently, all that sodomy and mutilation is fine because everyone is over 21.
    
    Over the weekend I read Dark Rain, the new Vertigo graphic novel by Mat Johnson and Simon Gane. I really enjoyed it. It's about two guys heading to New Orleans, during Hurricane Katrina, to take advantage a particular vulnerable bank. One of the guys is kind of good, one is kind of bad, so they're often at odd as the bad guy just wants to rob the bank, and the good guy wants to help people along the way. Recommended.
37. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    I'd never thought of scott pilgrim as a paedophile, but different laws and blah and other dull stuff. BBC Breakfast interviewed Edgar Wright last week. That was imense as I am sure you can imagine, what with the Beebs middle class presenters being all hip to youth culture. true dat. although bill turnbull claims to be a big spaced fan, so make of that what you will.
    
    I still have a stack of stuff to read, but what has mostly been captivating my attention this week is Frankie Boyle's autobiography 'My Sh*t Life So Far'. I'd never have pegged him as a comics fan, but he is! He is a big admirer of Grant Morrison's stuff and read loads of comics to stave off hunger (I've done that before). He very succinctly sums up the appeal of comics: they are the quickest way of turning you onto alternative ideas and ways of thinking. Thats probably one of the best things about comics I've heard anyone say.
38. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    Every time I see Scott Pilgrim’s cheeky fringed manga-eyed face I want to punch him in it so hard I end up wearing his teeth like some novelty bracelet. I thought this was just a middle aged man’s fearful knee jerk reaction to the threat of the new and the young. Turned out it was just my nonce sense tingling. Phew!
    
    Oh, I know you’ll all try and burn me in a ditch after that but listen well you scamps: my missus saw the advert for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Old People and now wants to see it. I guess that’s that there Karma in action. I want to go see that one about the talking dog, Marmalade or whatever. A proper film. Like we had before electricity.
39. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    My knee-jerk reaction to Scott Pilgrim was that I wasn't interested. There were no capes, no fights, no Marvel characters at all. Not only that, it also failed on the other test of an acceptable comic - it wasn't Vertigo brown. Despite all these handicaps (and a character holding hands with a girl who we'd allow to get married and have kids) it's great! Everyone should but it from OK! Now! Well, tomorrow when the shop opens, anyway...
40. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    Marmaduke looks terrible. It was a rubbish newspaper strip and now it is a rubbish film. hooray for hollywood.
41. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 23rd 2010

     
    And yesterday I was mostly reading:
    The Unwritten: still good, still interesting. Vertigo brownness rating: 6
    Fables: finally, Red's out of bed. I really like this book. Vertigo brownness rating: 7
    Daytripper: still trying to like this, still not sure there's a point. Oh well, one issue left. Vertigo brownness rating: 8
    Hellblazer: ah, he's not mad, after all! Constantine being very Constantine and Shade being mostly futile. Vertigo brownness rating: 8
42. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2010

     
    Captain Si’s mighty review time:
    Invincible Iron Man # 29 – Ooh! A real meaty issue this one! Despite being massively brilliant just about every issue, like lots of modern comics, there’s a slight brevity to the thing so its nice to have a solid, jam packed little issue. The Hammer girls demonstrate some nasty looking Giger-penis type missiles by way of some dopey gamers, Maria Hill admonishes Tony in a hospital over the Tokyo debacle some more, Tony’s clever brains gather in a nice jungle house to do boffiny work. Elsewhere, Rhodes has a meeting with the military top brass that doesn’t go well (but is beautifully written) and follows that up with an amusing gay moment with Tony’s bow tie (and no, thats not a euphemism) and Pepper Potts gets back in the Rescue armour and captures all the joy of whooshing about in some fancy armour. Also: fun sequence involving electro magnets! I am sure at some point, Marvel will spoil Pepper/Rescue by giving her her own ongoing, such is the dull inevitability of capitalism, so I am enjoying her whilst she lasts. Especially as I love Pepper Potts. I like how Larocca draws her too, I’d like to know if he had anyone in mind when he came up with her character design (Aside: Once upon a time, you’d find interesting tid-bits like this out in Trades, not so these days. I really miss those foreward/afterword things you used to get. I liked them. Damn you internetz, for joylessly cataloguing all this stuff online!). Then Sasha Hammer does something with goo and sparks to Tony...leaving Pepper looking mournfully on. Pepper Rating: 8/10
    
    Batgirl # 13 – In which Batgirl and Proxy foil a bank robbery by Clayface, who has taken on the ‘90s Animated Series as a look. A really nicely done tale, with the rather sad revelation that all Clayface was after was a photo of him and his ex-wife kept in safe deposit box. Sympathy for the villain, even though he’s just murdered a whole bunch of people! Who’d a thunk it? Lee Garbett sadly absent again this issue, but Pere Perez is a jolly good substitute for book that requires cheesecake art. Pepper Rating: 7/10
43. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2010

     
    Birds Of Prey # 3 & 4 – I bought another (correctly printed) copy of #3, so it all makes sense now. As does this opening story arc. The mystery surrounding the villain who has orchestrated the Birds current woes remains pleasingly out of sight, and there’s much intrigue to be had with Black Canary and her foe. A really solid book, with a nice suspense/mystery edge to it, only spoilt by the occasional gratuitous arse shot (of which there are plenty in #4), which are no doubt thrown in to keep desperate fan boys interested. Good work, Gail Simone and Ed Benes! Pepper Rating: 7/10
    Transformers #10 – Another dismal issue from Mike Costa and the sadly wasted Guido Guidi. Its not a totally lost cause, as Costa throws in some nice character moments – the lazy Combaticons, and Onslaught not being quite the military tactician we’re lead to believe- but spoils it time and again with a cack ongoing plotline. The Autobot’s attack, meanwhile, is just insipid and awful. Prime continues to be a weak and disinterested figurehead, and Bumblebee struggles to lead whilst getting to grips with a rubbish character design. I don’t think that Transformers comics, both in the US and the UK, have ever been in such a sorry state. Even Bob Budiansky’s weaker efforts from the 1980s were streets ahead of this terrible bunch of arse. Pepper Rating : 3/10
    Runaways: The Good Die Young TPB – Collecting #13 – 18. I didn’t read this on its original release, and picked this up second hand for a few quid. Its a great read, with Brian K Vaughan fleshing out the characters with ease. Adrian Alphona’s art is lovely, if of a similar style to a lot of other artists working in comics today – its very clean and emotive. The difficult thing about this particular instalment is that it concludes an ongoing arc concerning the kids escape from their dastardly parents (none of whom are terribly three dimensional, all of them being unlikable selfish beings movtivated by greed and avarice). It does it so well that frankly, I have a little intention of picking up the preceeding volumes (not much honestly seems to have happened in the previous twelve issues – some 300 pages- if it can be summed up in a few lines at the start...) or indeed the proceeding ones, it comes to such a natural and rewarding end. A difficult one to call, but my Pepper Rating is 6/10.
44. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2010

     
    Witchblade: Volume 7 TPB – I like Witchblade. Its not great, in all honesty. Its competent work elevated beyond its status by the incredible visual work of Stjepan Sejic. Ron Marz’ tale of ritual murder in a Jewish enclave of New York shows some initial promise, but gets lost somewhere along the way by the unwelcome and less interesting inclusion of a subplot featuring Danielle Baptiste (now also a bearer of the Witchblade) which derails the whole arc and just serves to set up the girl on girl fight fest of the next volume: War Of The Witchblades. Pepper Rating: 5/10
    
    Transmetropolitan : Volumes 6 & 7. Outside of his brief tenure on Hellstorm, this is my favourite work by Warren Ellis. I’ve been buying these collected volumes having got rid of my loose issues some time ago, and its been a joy getting reacquainted with Spider Jerusalem and his Filthy Assistants. Witty, sarcastic and very, very sharp, Transmet, like American Flagg before it, seems to accurately predict where Western Culture is likely to end up. Its the ‘articles’ in it, that I’ve found most arresting. The horrible chapter on child prostitution really moved me, if only because you know that in the back of your mind, this is actually happening somewhere in the world right now. My favourite thing about the book is the constant plea to people to think for themselves, rather than just be content with a world of doctored media and reality TV. Brilliant stuff. Pepper Rating: 9/10.
    
    Fantastic Four #356 – 370 Acquired over a few months of rummaging in OK’s 50p bins, these early parts of the Defalc o/Ryan tenure on FF have been tremendous fun to read. I really liked this era of FF, with its soap like quality, flowery dialogue and constant sense of jeopardy. So much so, that when Onslaught came and went I was quite sad to see Defalco and Ryan dropped from the book and never returned to the FF again so definitive did their run feel to me. These early issues have allsorts of shenanigans involving the Skrulls, Devos The Devastator, Franklin Richards growing mutant powers and, most importantly, the development of Susan Richards. Forever portayed as Reed’s loyal wife, she never really did much more than use her force field at an opportune moment throughout the books previous run. Defalco and Ryan really had her step out of the shadows and take charge of the team. It was a really refreshing thing to see, and along with the more creative use of her powers, made her continuing journey towards eventual leadership of the team a real joy to read. Even the few issues that are marred by the dreadful ‘Infinity War’ crossover manage to be indispensible reading, as they weave ongoing plot threads in and out of the latest cosmic crisis. Pepper Rating : 8/10
    
    I, uh, will leave it at that for now, as I do seem to have gone on a bit (sorry).
45. • CommentAuthorMidnighter
    • CommentTimeAug 24th 2010

     
    Frankie Boyle is writing one of the comics in CLiNT magazine and apparently has a few more ideas in the pipeline. Is his book good? I've been tempted to get it for a while, he seems a really interesting and intelligent guy.
46. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeAug 25th 2010

     
    It is good, but he quickly diverts your attention away from any moments of pathos with a stream of jokes and asides about related topics. The insights into his life are interesting - a genuine concern that none of our politicians are competent, that nothing serious is being done about global warming and I was quite suprised to learn that he volunteered to look after people with mental health problems. His general disgust at having to deal with idiotic television people is barely concealed, as there's also the inclusion of some crackers ideas for sketches that were rejected by television. If I'm honest, I'm not really suprised - some of them are just plain bizarre and labour the point somewhat, but it is a genuine shame that 'The Entertainments' (i think thats what it was called) wasn't televised, as that did make me laugh out loud. Much like a lot of the book.
47. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2010 edited

     
    I don't read a lot of memoiry things but lately I've been reading Stewart Lee's book "How I Escaped My Certain Fate". It is industrial grade funny and no mistake. He also likes comics (particularly The Hulk - fact!). Funny and intelligent as Stewart Lee's book "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" may be it is not, however, comics.
    
    The Viking Prince (DC Comics) is in a very real sense comics.It reprints in a crisp and attractive fashion every Viking Prince story from The original Brave And The Bold comics (1955-1959) and the two parter where The Viking Prince teams up with Sgt Rock and Easy Company (remember: "There ain't nothin' easy in Easy.") from 1966. The Viking Prince starts off as a staidly entertaining strip of derring-do that slowly changes into a fantastical Harryhausen-esque epic that delights the imagination even as it baffles the rational mind. So yes, Bob Haney is involved.
    
    In The Challenge of The Flying Horse (B&TB #19), for example, Jon (The Viking Prince) and his loyal mute bard(and how Haney that is - a mute bard!)companion are attacked by a flying horse. Jon is carried off atop the winged stallion before falling from it onto some clouds which it transpires are actually Valhalla. Naturally Jon is at once discovered by The Valkries the leader of whom wastes no time engaging him in battle. There is a fight. Jon cannot win for he restrains himself from hitting a lady and so he plunges from the cloudy land to his doom! And yet, nay! For his fall is broken by the black sail of the cloud riding longship of the Moon Vikings. There is a fight. Following which Jon is made a prisoner and then placed within a great drum of logs which the Moon Vikings then roll down onto Valhalla. The Valkyries find themselves under surprise attack from the Moon Vikings. there is a fight. The attack is repelled only thanks to Jon’s help and judicious use of the winged steed which started all this stuff off in the first place. Jon then rejoins his mute bard pal to continue his wanderings. This takes place over the course of 12 pages.
    
    It’s for kids basically. And while it is a joyous thing to own such a handsome volume which does full justice to the ever delightful and ever evolving artwork of Joe Kubert I can’t help but think that it would be an even more delightful thing if it had been published in softcover, been cheaper and thus been suitable for the jammy hands and inquisitive minds of children. Maybe sealing this stuff off for the attentions of chin stroking giffers isn’t the best way to go. Just a thought. Personally, and selfishly, I am overjoyed to have such a classy package of Joe Kubert delineated stories I thought I’d never see. But, maybe what’s best for me isn’t best for comics? I loved it but y'know what? I bet an 8 yr old would have plotzed!
    
    Man, that Joe Kubert - he hasn't stopped dancing yet!
48. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2010

     
    Guys what happened to the hunchbacked assistant that used to work in the batcave?Also has anyone had a look at the collected Secret wars 2 storyline?Just wondered if there were any extras?
    
    Bring back the Fantastic 400 is there a collected edition of these strips yet?
49. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2010

     
    what is the latest news about swamp thing is there any?Also what's happened to Captain Atom are we going to see him again?
50. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2010

     
    Hey, Greg75 I thought the spinally challenged one died in Hush. But as I thought Hush was dreadful and haven't re-read it ever I could be wrong. I don't even know what the Fantastic 400 is/was, so I'll bow out of the other questions, sir. Anyone else?
    
    In order to celebrate the shipping of the final issue of the latest re-imagineering of the origin of Superman, which I’m not reading, I ventured forth into The Garage of Solitude and set my liver spotted hands on The Man of Steel and Superman: Birthright. Actually it was a complete coincidence but that won’t stop me pretending otherwise.
    
    The Man of Steel is by John Byrne and Dick Giordano and collects the 1986 6 issue mini-series that re-imagina-booted the entire Super-mythos from the ground up. It was one big deal at the time I tells ya. The 24 years since its publication have taken their toll although at the time it was hardly cutting edge stuff. But then that was never the intention. Reflecting mainstream comics of yore the dialogue is a stodgy pudding of exposition peppered with the odd raisin of characterisation. The plot relies largely on incredible coincidences and isn’t going to surprise anyone None of that’s as bad as it sounds since that’s how mainstream comics tended to be written back when men held open doors for ladies.
    
    It’s traditional stuff basically and there’s no one more trad than John Byrne, dad. And it’s John Byrne’s show all the way here. (I’ve often thought that John Byrne represents a parallel comics universe where Alan Moore never happened). So you know, check on the old John Byrne-ometer before even considering this puppy. What’s it about? Guess. Anyway I liked it, I really liked Byrne’s Lex Luthor. But Magpie remains sh*t to this day. Man of Steel, I say it's okay but then I read it back when the sun was young so maybe a more modern take would be a better idea. If only there were such a thing…
    
    Superman: Birthright is by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu. This is the 2003 12 issue maxi-series which re-mamboed the Superman mythos for the Smallville generation. It is a far more modern re-telling so it is predictably a lot longer with far fewer panels per page, better dialogue, a narrower focus and builds to a more typically cinematic threat/climax. It’s far leaner (but longer, go figure!) and effective than The Man of Steel and, yes, it is superior. The only real clunker for me is the unconvincing attempt to tie in Lil Lex Luthor to Kal’s time in Smallville. Probably something to do with the Smallville TV show about which I care not a whit. Lex in Metropolis, however makes up for it in spades (Booooo! Lex Luthor! Boooo!) Yu is a sparkling and dynamic talent on this evidence and Waid earns his rep as the Mr. Solid of comics. Fair warning though, some people have a problem with the ending. I don’t. I think it soars.
    
    Man of Steel vs. Birthright? Birthright takes it!
51. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeAug 26th 2010

     
    I am buying the Superman Origin thing, but I do have a question. The question could be "why have I bought so many one-shots and mini-series that re-tell the origin of a character that I already know all about the origin of?" but the answer to that is "because you're a comics-loving idiot with no impulse control, Lee." So, instead, my question is: why have Marvel and DC brought out so many one-shots and mini-series that re-tell the origin of a character that everyone already knows all about the origin of?
    
    I know "attract new readers" will feature somewhere, but seriously - does anyone not know about Superman? Anyone at all? Is a six issue mini really needed? Is anyone gonna go "Heavens to Murgatroyd! You mean he's an alien! And grew up in Smallville! Yoinks! Who knew?"
52. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 1st 2010

     
    Well, Lee, I don't know but I think it's more about bringing the story in line with current continuity rather than new readers. Of course it helps if your re-telling of the origin doesn't finish six months after the status quo it was intended to support has ended. Well done, DC! Also it's a ego-job for Geoff Johns as a reward for his inspired melding of I Spit On Your Grave and The Care Bears which has given DC its biggest success in aeons.
    
    There's also an OGN of Superman's origin coming out shortly which is aimed at the bookstores and the mythical new readers.
    
    But what have I been reading?!
    
    As just tribute to the Once And Futcha King of Komiks (Jack Kirby) I have been reading early issues of Fantastic Four. I won't bore you (for once) with how awesome and influential these rough and ready tales of yesterdecade are but I will just note this...
    
    In issue 3 one Alan Weiss writes in to say "I would like to know what the name of your artist is." Could this be the same Alan Weiss who etched the tales of Young Tom Strong?
    
    The same issue contains a missive from Unsigned in Dallas, Texas. The mystery person calls Susan Storm a "doll". Could this anonymity seeking Texan be a Mr.Lee Harvey Oswald?
    
    But! In issue 5 a wee chap thought FF#3 was excellent and hopes the series runs longer than the two year subscription he has just taken out. That chap was one Roy Thomas. O! Roy Thomas of The Past! If only you could gaze upon the works of Roy Thomas of The Future! Oy! What joy that Roy would feel!
    
    FF lettercols - the hidden current of history revealed!
53. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2010

     
    As night fell and they closed in around me I read...
    
    Issues 1 and 3 of Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher (Marvel Comics, £2.99 each). Look, I'm not proud of it but I really enjoyed this. Basically "some kind of gene therapy bonded to a pathogen" has got loose and turned everyone into tribalistic cannibals. Which would upset anyone's day but when the world in question contains superpowered peeps that's one humdinger of a bad day. Only Frank Castle is left...and the last man alive may not be alone!
    
    This is the kind of story which usually degenerates quickly into patience sapping stuff like: <cheerful character initially created for the diversion of children>+<unspeakable act usually occurring in maximum security penal establishments during a riot>+<innocent and blameless victim>+<location readily recognisable in the real or the fictional world>. Like so: "War Journal. Day #123,016: Puck weed in the eyes of a sad puppy in the Baxter Building lobby. So I shot him in the c*ck." And there is some of that. But it totally works because, unlike what I just did there, Jonathan Mayberry plays it dead straight.
    
    Because Mayberry is smart enough to know that the stuff going on in these pages is so ludicrous that to call attention to this with a smuggy smirky winky nudge nudge would be catastrophic. Basically Matberry doesn't blink. And that's the right way to play this one. Oh yes, it's clearly The Omega Man with Frank as Heston and The Marvel Universe as those troublesome folk in albino fright wigs. You don't like The Omega Man - you gave up on life! It's the kind of story where Frank finds two survivors and one of them is a kid. And the other is a Priest. Yes! Subtlety just exploded in your face!
    
    Goran Parlov draws it. Yes, he does. I think Goran Parlov is aces. He signs his name in a little box a la Toth and Bernet and I don't think that's presumptious. Putting Goran Parlov on Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher is a bit like drinking Dr.Pepper from The Holy Grail. You'd enjoy it anyway but the fact it's in the vessel that held the blood of Christ just makes it fizzier. I don't think I thought that through. Eating a big Mac off Wedgwood china? Something anyway.
    
    Marvel Univers vs. The Punisher? It's like Ennis' The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe but better. Fact.
54. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 4th 2010 edited

     
    I read and took a liking to The Buzzard #1-3 by Eric Powell (Dark Horse, £2.99 each).
    
    This is fantastic. I'm late to the Eric Powell Party but that's okay because it seems to still be in full swing and there's still brews in the fridge. What we have here is a mini-series concerning a character from Powell's (currently on hiatus) Goon series. Don't worry about that though because Powell gives you all you need to know about the character in the comic itself. Really, don't worry about it. First up, Powell's art here is absolutely blow the doors off gorgeous. Powell really gets comic art. Most importantly he gets that comic art is, at its best, an elegant cohesion of different elements and so the illustrative eyefest here is built not only of the wonderful images but also the evocative lettering (Powell & Nate Piekos) and the moodtastic colours (by Dave Stewart). The end result resembles nothing so much as if someone found a way to turn all those moodily evocative pulp paperback covers of yore into a sequential graphic narrative. I guess someone did.
    
    Story wise what we have here, people, is a meditation on death and how it comes to all and how no man knows the hour of its calling and how to live in fear of this is no damn life at all. It's bleak stuff stately told through the poetry of pulp and dialogue which reinforces the tale's themes. Powell isn't going to candy coat this stuff but there is humour in here too. And action. And violence. And Demons. Ah Jimmy Crack Corn! It's just (just!) an intelligent tale told with all the magic available to the comics creator. Eric Powell's The Buzzard, it might bring to mind a time when you were in awe of comics.
    
    There's also a Billy The Kid's Old Timey Oddities backup strip which involves the titular gunslinger and his band of differently abled chums having spooky adventures. That's good fun but it's just pecan pie. The real meat is in The Buzzard. Bring your own B-B-Q sauce!
55. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 5th 2010

     
    In bed this morning (no need for that detail, I'm just being saucy) I read Namor, which is subtitled The First Mutant. But he's clearly not. Wolverine might be older and En Sabah Nur definitely is.
56. • CommentAuthorNimbus Thitherward
    • CommentTimeSep 6th 2010 edited

     
    Hey LC ~ welcome (belatedly) to the Powell bandwagon where there's never a dull read. But while I'm here can I recommend to yourself (and anybody else that's reading) the new super-duper run of Atomic Robo collections that our heroes at OK have got in stock. Addictive, extremely amusing, well written & drawn the collections are an affordable way to catch up on one of the better new titles since Shaolin Cowboy. Buy yours now before they're all gone.
    
    And don't forget to add Clint to your order.
57. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 8th 2010

     
    Things I has been reading:
    
    Clint # 1
    Beyond the tee-heeing of a comic that looks from a brief glance like it says c*nt - and also looks like its marking out Frankie Boyle as a c*nt (although that beard possibly marks him out as one – arf!) – this is actually a pretty good read and a pleasing inclusion to Britain’s lack-lustre comics industry. The big selling point is the first viewing of the sequel to Millar and Romita’s Kick Ass mini-series. Or at least it would be, did we not get only a measly five pages of it. Difficult to judge at only five pages, but it picks up with Mindy trying to teach Kick Ass how to fight. Witty enough, but the crack about Rhianna seems crudeness for crudeness sake and a bit like a line someone used in a pub that was thought funny enough to be included here.
    Frankie Boyle and Jim Muir’s Rex Royd is a bizarre proposition, and is one I will have to re-read, but it seems like its about some fella who is dead rich and powerful and has some mad thing going on where he has his mind implanted in duplicates and goes out doing dangerous stuff until he gets bored. He utters a code word and returns to ‘reality’ and his real personality resurfaces. I think. I’m not sure. The story isn’t very clear, as it jumps about a bit, suggesting there’s a working out of how the format of comics works. It also reads, weirdly, like Boyle’s autobiography. In so much as there’s an ongoing narrative thread overloaded with ideas and divergences. Interesting.
    Nemesis gets a reprint here, which is enjoyable, if something I’ve come across before in Marshal Law.
    Huw Stephen’s Space Oddities is a glib two page strip that isn’t particularly good and seems to be included just to make up the page count.
    The real gem is (and I am surprised by this) Johnathan Ross’ Turf. A tale of prohibition era-New York mobsters being muscled in on by a family of Vampires, looking to ensure their longevity and bring about the return of the ancient one. Its quite wordy and dense, which makes a nice change from the brevity of most modern comics, and looks a bit like its been pulled from Metal Hammer. I’m just not sure about the seemingly random inclusion of space aliens. At any rate, its a good read and suprising coming from a man who spent his £18 million BBC contract doing little more than making crude and unfunny jokes about oral sex and masturbation for an hour on a Friday night.
    The features in Clint are largely awful, sadly . Aside from a decent interview with Jimmy Carr, all we get is the kind of unfunny crap that clogs up drug-based ‘humour’ comic Wasted. The ‘hot mums’ feature is Heat-level witless and a two page spread on Hollywood actors dubbed by actors in foreign countries for foreign audiences is beyond pointless. It makes me wonder what age range Millar is pitching this at. I think its aimed at the same crowd that buy 2000AD, (although the adult content warning will no doubt have this languishing on the top shelf next to Viz and Nuts, thus missing its potential audience by a wide mark)so why fill it with a load of crappy features that only a ten year old would find funny?
58. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 8th 2010

     
    Scarlet # 2
    Blimey. I right likes this. I can’t believe the same creative team gave us 7 mediocre issues of Spider Woman and then we get this. Its not anything mind blowingly different from any other crime series – corrupt police, innocents framed and revenge are all present and correct – its just very well done. Splendid!
    
    Black Widow # 5
    The first arc comes to a pleasing end. I haven’t a clue who Imus is and whether he’s a nemesis Black Widow has encountered before, but I like how tightly plotted and clever this has been in revealing who has been out to get Natasha. Nice revelation concerning her daughter, too. It’ll be interesting to see where this title goes now after such a strong opener.
    
    Unknown Soldier #23
    Now galloping to its bloody end with a story arc that Joshua Dysart clearly had in mind from the get go, the book does what it can to flesh out the shady ‘Unknown Soldier’ programme, but it still feels a little lacking. I’d be interested to learn the exact nature of Moses – he’s a doctor, so was he co-opted into the programme, or is he a soldier reprogrammed to become a doctor? A sleeper that can be turned on at the flick of a switch? There’s a lot to ponder on, and whatever the ‘voice’ in Moses head is working towards has been implanted in him for some considerable time – and possibly from the original Unknown Soldier. Frankly, all this is distracting from the usual meat of this book – the fractured and messy nature of Africa, and how this exploited by, well, everyone.
59. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 8th 2010

     
    Punisher Max : Happy Ending One Shot
    Once upon a time, Marvel used to have ‘Marvel Comics Presents’, an anthology title that ran stories of some of its minor characters or out of continuity tales of the big hitters. These days, they just pump out these aggravating one-shots in the course of a title’s run. I have no idea why. I always grimace when one of these inevitably turns up. I’m buying the ongoing because I enjoy it! Is that not enough Marvel? Do you have to distract, and often confuse me, by presenting some completely out of context inconsequential tale? No. So why do it? What is it all about?
    That aside, Peter Milligan’s tale of a suburban schmuck dragged into one of the Punisher’s killing sprees is engaging and works simply by keeping Frank Castle to the background and focusing on the supporting cast. Juan Jose Ryp’s art is solid and detailed and good enough that he gets to provide the cover art too. Presumably Adi Granov and David Finch were on holiday that week.
    So, a good, if needless story that will have no impact on the main Punisher book and exists simply for its own sake.
60. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 9th 2010

     
    Just what did happen to the original Unknown Soldier?
61. •  
      CommentAuthorMike Infinitum
    • CommentTimeSep 9th 2010

     
    That's unknown.
62. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 9th 2010

     
    he got dipped in the unknown egg...
63. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 9th 2010

     
    I have also just this minute finished Nemesis The Warlock volume one (one of 2000ADs phone book style collections), collecting books one - four. Blimey, its good stuff. I wasn't that excited by the terror tube openers, which seemed a bit throwaway, but I love how mad and rich it all is. Brilliant. Hurrah for Pat Mills and Kev O'Neill and Jesus Redondo and Bryan Talbot! Hurrah! :)
64. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 14th 2010

     
    no-one been reading at all??
    
    I've just finished the latest Booster Gold book where he has to stop the Titans getting killed really enjoying this title.His old mag was boring compared to this and hope it stays for a good run.Does anyone know why DC never had their own "What If?"title or something similar?
    
    Also just finished reading Powerloss-Avengers vol 10 or 12 or something...
    
    Give the Absorbing Man his own series,what happened to his mrs anyway?Titania?
    
    Captain America Reborn as well i liked that one,but we all know the red skull isn't dead,nice to see Arnim Zola again but was upset there was no doughboy creature with him.
    
    And finally where's Wendell Vaughan at the moment?
    
    Thanks.
65. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 14th 2010

     
    I've been reading loads! I've just got through Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Classic vols 1 & 2, Daredevil : Born Again, The Man Without Fear & Father, ABC Warriors : The Volgan War vol 2, Ghost In The Shell (nearly finished), Hack/Slash Compendium vol 1 and some other stuff. I just figured I've rattled on enough over the last few days :D
66. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 14th 2010

     
    I've also been reading loads, but can't remember what... I think it was Deadpool: Pulp last night.
    
    As I recall, the newly incorporeal Wendell Vaughan is in space trying to explain to the inhabitants of Knowhere what the Realm Of Kings stuff was all about.
67. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 15th 2010

     
    I’ve been reading lots of things but I only wrote about this one:
    
    Dead Ahead #3. This is a comic about zombies on a ship. The writing isn’t very good. The authors literally don’t know the meaning of the word “literally” which really bunches my grundies, but they seem like nice men and anyway the only reason to buy this is the presence of art by Alex “Nimble” Nino. Alex Nino is old but he isn’t dead, Alex Nino isn’t a zombie but he hungers. Hungers for…innovation! Visually The Nino bursts his way through the flimsy door of convention and sets about disembowelling sequential narrative sense with all the gusto and grace of the restless dead. Pretty much each reader-challenging page initially just looks like meat static. Finding a way through this visual noise of corrupted flesh isn’t easy. Corpse garlands adorn the page with only the huge ship to anchor the gaze. Yet this ship too is bewitched by The Nino; it looms and recedes at seemingly one and the same time, as unreliable as flesh become fluid, as the dead become live. If Alex Nino were a zombie he’d go for your eyes!
68. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 18th 2010

     
    I've just finished Amazing Spider-Man #s 641 and 642, which means I've finished the much-trumpeted OMIT story and had an issue to try and forget about it. How pointless was that story? What was the rationale? "Hey, remember how insultingly awful OMD was? You know how people are still trying to get over it? Let's remind them about how Spidey used to be but now isn't by doing another bad story in which MJ is weirdly dowdy but at least there's no Mephisto!" Why would they do that? Pointless, pointless rubbish, just so Joe Q could spend four issues letting us know he hates MJ and end hopes that she'll return and they can retcon the retcon. Lame. I'd mostly put OMD out of my mind and adjusted to the new status quo, but this pointlessly drawn out tat has reminded me all over again. I'd cut a deal with Mephisto to make him make me think I'd cut a deal with Dr Strange to make me not remember any of it (or whatever the hell was going on...) if I could.
    
    642 was fine.
69. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Am i the only one who got bored with Trinity?Just started reading the second collected edition and gave up with it halfway through.Has anyone seen the new Knight Rider yet just watched the first few episodes and it was pretty good.
70. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    I watched the whole series. It was awful.
71. • CommentAuthorsmiggy3000
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    I liked it, it had Optimus Prime and Val Kilmer...
72. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    It did, there's that. It was like Baywatch crossed with Knight Rider crossed with Transmorphers.
73. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Actually, that looks great when written down...
74. • CommentAuthorsmiggy3000
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Transmorphers or Transformers? Transmorphers was awesome...
75. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Morphers. Formers wasn't that great...
76. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    And, back to reading, I just caught up with the Thanos Imperative which, following the muddled mess that was Realm of Kings, is shaping up to be yet another great Abnett/Lanning cosmic Marvel story. Galactus shows up to fight! How cool is that? Well, if you're thinking that it sounds at all cool, get OK to pull you the issues before they go! And greg75 - Wendell Vaughan is there and kicking Cancerverse ass!
77. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    I have been reading about a comic I read when I was about 9 that had an enormous effect on the shape my interior life would take. It's not a comic that comes up in discussions much but I loved this comic back then even though I had no idea why. Now I know why and I still love it. This guy does a pretty neat job of explaining it:
    
    http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28414
    
    Hey, I bet OKComics have one in those back issue boxes. Worth a look, ey?
78. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    He was in Nova of late!
79. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Ihave also been reading old Fantastic Four comics. Because I am old and they are fantastic comics and my son is four (that didn't work very well did it?)
    
    In Fantastic Four #13 Kirby and Lee metaphorically present the exploitation of the entire Russian people by the vile scum who mangled the glorious ideals of Socialism for their own base ends via a man with a Max Wall haircut and three super-powered apes. Also The Watcher has a big house filled with convenient gadgets and is a bit of an @ss-hat. Ditko inked Kirby here. Yessir, I can boogie!
    
    In Fantastic Four #14 the sheer range of absurdly unlikely ocean life forms (The Hypno-fish!, The Giant Undersea Porcupine!, The Ravenous Unthinking Flame-eater!)used by Prince Namor against The Fantastic Four comedically distracts from his incessant sex pesting of Sue Storm. Get a ring on that gal's finger Reed-o she's got wandering eyes!
    
    In Fantastic Four #15 there is a mind warping panel in which Reed Richards holds up a Kirby-tech bottle containg a wee green fishy-thing. His dialogue is: "I've ALREADY managed to create a primitive form of one-celled life which lived for a few seconds! Do you think I feel like stopping NOW?" If, via magick and fifth dimensional tech you reduced the work of Grant Morrison to its most base element it would resemble that panel. It's just one panel! Fantabulous!
    
    And that Doctor Doom! He's always up to some larks! The big rascal!
80. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Hey, Greg75 I quite liked Trinity. I really liked it when the CSA (Crime Society of America not the Child Support Agency) turned up which, thankfully, was quite often. That Owl-Man he's like Batman but naughty! Someone could make some serious gelt with that idea! I was less interested in all the Tarot stuff. I only listen to two people when it comes to The Tarot: Alan Moore and Peter Cushing. Trinity was okay, go on stick it out, man! Wehre's your gumption!
81. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Alas, I don't read Nova, Lee. I hear it's quite good, though. Probably not as good as Marvel Premiere #32.
82. • CommentAuthorLee
    • CommentTimeSep 20th 2010

     
    Don't worry, Lamont. From this moment forth, after I've read an issue of Nova I shall then immediately read it again, just for you!
83. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 22nd 2010

     
    just finished reading Y The Last Man book 8 only two more books left now.Is Captain Comet dead am I correct in thinking he was killed off in 52?And are there any Doom Patrol fans on here?
84. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 22nd 2010

     
    There really is no beginning to your charity, Lee! Cheers! Hope you are enjoying ThanoswaR (or what ever it may be titled). Thanos rules. Does he still want to get smoky with Death? The incurable romantic! Thanos - the knock kneed despot in wellies!
    
    I am a Doom Patrol fan, Greg75. Well, I have read the Morrison, Byrne and the current Giffen run. I have not, however, read the original series. But I am hoping to buy the Showcase collections to correct his omission. I don't know if that makes me a fan but I do like inclining my head so my chin is resting on my neck and intoning "Doooooooooooooooooom Paaaaaaaaaaaaatrooooooooooooooool!" in a gruff manner. And, yes, I do in fact do that. But not when anyone else is around.
    
    Now, Greg75, are you about to ask a question? And does it perchance, and please forgive me if I am being unduly assumptive here, revolve around whether one of/all of The Doom Patrol are in a state which one might describe as lacking in life?
85. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2010

     
    While I am pretending that it doesn't look like I have accidentally insulted Greg75 I’ll break the tomb-like silence by telling you about the time I read the Marvel Adventures: Iron Man/Spider-Man TPB.
    
    In the Marvelous Marvel manner this contains four incredibly random stories that either feature Iron Man and/or Spider-Man. And I do mean random here. Let’s take a looky-loo!
    
    Marvel Adventures Spider-Man#57 (2007?) is an issue of Spider-Man that seems to be in the midst of some long running story concerning Peter Parker’s girlfriend and her flatmate. It largely revolves around secret identities but, yes, it is quite easy to change it into a metaphor for the rudey stuff. Anyway there are several important things about this issue: it is very entertaining, Peter Parker is not married, Gwen Stacy and her Dad are still alive, Werewolf By Night turns up but this and the bank robbery play second fiddle to the soap operatics, Chris Samnee draws it. The fact that I will never know what came before or what comes after this issue was no impediment to my enjoyment. Continuity is a false God and I shall not worship at his shrine!
    
    Marvel Adventures Iron-Man #1 (2007?) is totally unrelated to the aforementioned comic and is a re-up-date-imagining of Iron Man’s origin whereby the Koreans are replaced by A.I.M. It’s probably wise to lay of the Koreans now they have nukes. Fred Van Lente does a nice job with fast and economical storytelling. The art was too busy and cluttered for me, it wasn’t awful but the fact that I missed Don Heck’s spare line-work is probably more due to the fact I am ancient than any slur on James Cordeiro. Time marches on and the old are left to die in the dust! This is nature!
    
    Iron Man #234 (1988) that’s right 1988! This one is IN continuity and contains Spider-Man. The plot is nothing, there’s this man who is radioactive (he’s called The Radioactive Man. Really.) and it doesn’t matter. Spider-Man and Iron Man fight him at the end. The best bits involve James Rhodes hitting on ladies. On exiting a flight simulator:
    
    Sexy Spectacle Sporting Lady says: “You’re pretty quick on the stick, flyboy!”
    James Rhodes: “Yeah, but I can go real slow…if the TARGET’S right. Miss…?”
    Foxy Lady: “MRS. But thanks anyway.”
    
    It’s the ‘80s, James Rhodes, get out of your cave, sleaze-o! Sisters are independent now! Man, if I was Tony Stark I’d fire that guy so fast. He’s a walking sexual harassment suit waiting to happen. Later James Rhodes walks in on a post coital Stark and declares: “Whoa! Never thought I’d find YOU waking up with a DOG!”
    Whoa nelly! Before you go after his plums with the scissors, be assured Tony Stark is in fact in bed with a real canine. Hilarious misunderstanding! Also: Tony Stark’s hair is horrible. When people say comics were better back then they probably don’t mean this one.
    
    There’s another issue: it’s Marvel-Team-Up #9 (1973!) by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru. So y’know it is entertaining but in a terrible way. This one is actually “To Be Continued…” in “Crisis in 1973!” and there’s a little note directing the reader to Essential Marvel Team-Up Vol. 1. I guess there must be some kind of Iron Man and Spider-Man comics shortage because I can see no reason for it to be included here.
    
    So, Marvel have a weird idea of what to put in a TPB and I enjoyed all of it for different reasons in each case. The best one was the Spider-Man one by Chris Samnee. Big surprise. Anyway I didn’t buy this TPB for me and the intended audience liked the bit where the dog goes “YAP!” and the bits where Spider-Man walked upside down. And why not?
86. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2010

     
    Meanwhile...in New York City...
    
    In Fantastic Four #19 Reed Richards spies some hieroglyphics in a museum. Naturally this leads to the FF travelling back in time to the "missing years" of Eygptian history in order to fetch back some "radioactive herbs" which will cure Alicia Masters of her blindness. Upon their arrival they are set upon by the forces of a traveller from the future (both theirs and the Egyptians natch!) a time traveller who may have been the descendent of Doctor Doom! Or as Bashful Ben Grimm says "Maybe it was Doctor Doom himself! Maybe he found a way to live for centuries...it might have been the Doctor Doom of the future!!" Who the hell knows!? You don't come to the Fantastic Four for answers, that's what google is for!
    
    Anyway Alicia stays blind and is sad but Bashful Benjy makes everyone feel sorry for him instead because, y'know, God forbid anyone else should get a look in. Boo Hoo! I'm all orange and lumpy with the strength of fifty! Whaaah! You can still see cancha, Ma Grimm's blue-eyed boy? Yer peepers still work, right? Aw, shut yer yapper.
    
    This issue's Future Celebrity in the lettercol is one Mr. Steve Gerber. Steve Gerber (1947 - 2008) created Howard The Duck, Omega The Unknown, Hard Time, Nevada, amongst others and had a well regarded run on The Defenders in the '70s. Steve Gerber was awesome, a man whose talent seemed too big for comics so he pushed comics into new shapes. Not always the right shapes, mind you, but even when it didn't work it was pretty stimulating. Steve Gerber was a great comics writer and I miss his prescence. However he moans about Ditko's inking of Kirby in FF#14, so y''know he could also be wrong about stuff.
87. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2010

     
    In Fantastic Four #20 the FF discover The Mysterious Miracle Man. But I'm more concerned about the opening scene which shows Reed Richards putzing around with a meteor which contains a dehydrated acorn looking thing which "proves that some form of life MUST exist in outer space!" That's right Reed, unlike, oh, I don't know, say The Skrulls (FF#2), the entire population of Planet-X (FF#7), The Impossible Man from the planet Poppup (FF#11) and The Watcher (FF#14). Reed Richards - the world's dumbest smartest man! Next thing you know he'll think it's a good idea to put all his friends in some kind of space prison purely on the say so of a deluded drunk!
    
    As for the letters I doubt one Kevin Shields later went on to form My Bloody Valentine, but I am fairly certain that one George R Martin would go on to write the excellent novel Fevre Dream and also the Fire And Ice Fantasy series which I haven't read but gets good reviews. I guess he added an "R" along the way. Or it's someone else. How should I know?! Whaddammi, Reed Richards?!
88. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    Yes Lamont what is the current line uppage of doom patrol have they re-booted it again from the start?And what was the name of the female member from the Giffen run?She worked harvesting body parts ah yes celsius.Has Animal Vegetable Carbohydrate man been seen since the Giffen run?
89. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    I am finally getting Final Crisis to read from the library tomorrow along with New Krypton book 1,X-Men Siege,and Fringe
90. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    Hmmm.can someone back me up on this?Civil War:Marvel Universe?Isn't the stuff that's in this already in a Civil War TPB?
91. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    Are the Nightwing TPB'S out of print?
92. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    Hey, Greg75!
    The current incarnation of Doom Patrol has Robot Man, Bandage Face, Bearded Legless Sociopath and Gets Larger Woman as the core team but Giffen is adding characters from seemingly every run (Crazy Jane, Barry The Cross-Dressing Street etc) and Ambush Bug as well. Because everything tastes better with Ambush Bug! Animal Vegetable E-Number man is still hanging around in the current series. It’s a good series, inventive and stuff, so of course no one is buying it (I checked the sales figures: it's me and Geoff from Ottowa).I didn’t know there had been a previous Giffen run, has there? Tell me!
    
    You will totally love Final Crisis. Everyone does. Except everyone who didn’t. Which was almost everyone. At least they read it. Imagine not reading Final Crisis! Imagine living a life without reading Final crisis! What kind of life would that be!?!
    
    I don’t know anything about the civil War TPBs. The only thing I know about Nightwing is he dresses like he should be doing hen parties for middle aged women in Glossop.
93. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    No I was mistaken sorry Lamont!it was the run with the invasion cross over before it went to vertigo i've put in a request for the latest doom patrol tpb at my library lol.Has a tpb containing the last ever issue of Swamp Thing been done yet?And who is the most under-used character in the Dc Universe?I will say the Human Bomb!Let's have a Human Bomb mini series.A film even.Duvet covers etc etc.Who was the guy who used to attack the JLA in their dreams?Was it Dr.Destiny?Has he been seen lately?
94. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    Oh and very quickly did Beyonce's mother say to her after she'd finishing playing with her friends-You have dusty knees child?Just wondering....
95. • CommentAuthorsmiggy3000
    • CommentTimeSep 24th 2010

     
    im pretty sure Civil War: Marvel Universe is the only collection with those particular issues, apart from She-Hulk perhaps...
96. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 25th 2010

     
    Just at my library and have ended up getting-Fantastic Four(by Jon Hickman vol 1)Really hacks me off that if it's the regular run then it should be by volume number not the guy who's doing the story fair enough if it's visionaries but not regular run!
    
    Captain Britain and MI13-Vampire State
    FF In Search Of Galactus HC
    and..
    Transformers-For All Mankind
    Transformers-Bumblebee
97. • CommentAuthorgreg75
    • CommentTimeSep 25th 2010

     
    Unfortunately I live in a shared house and one of the guys is a student who's interested in Manga and Annie May I said leave her alone she's my girlfriend he said no...Anime I said oh.He decided he needed to tell someone about his love of Gundam I thought fine it was only one series....AIEEEE how about he decided to go through EVERY series from when it started in the 70's up to the present day acting out "Critical scenes" too.All I could say was I saw Voltron and it was "good" although I couldn't act out any "critical"scenes. I also explained my love of the pink power ranger from the Lightspeed Rescue series however he soon lost interest.
    
    And finally for this weekend...
    
    Why am I alone in my love for the film Condorman?This was a quality film where Michael Crawford was in no danger of going "ooh betty",although to be honest people buying it off e-bay for £70 a pop is a bit sad.Even the the theme tune was good!!
98. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
    • CommentTimeSep 25th 2010

     
    Greg75! Kudos to you for doing what i always do when confronted with a fountain of geek-speak of which i know nothing: commenting on something i remember seeing that was similar and i liked a bit. and the pink power ranger from lightspeed rescue...she is quite cute ( i dun a google) . Are the power rangers still at school? if so, she's clearly in her mid twenties and far too old for school. funny how when you interupt a torrent of show recounting like that, the purportrator quickly looses interest. its like they are some weird super villain that leaps from a shadowy corner to bamboozle and distract whilst they pick your pockets and steal all your forks, and can only be halted by throwing something out there that they view with utter contempt.
99. • CommentAuthorLamont Cranston
    • CommentTimeSep 25th 2010

     
    Yes, I applaud your restraint, Mr Greg75. Personally when I find my self in such a situation I start draping dust cloths over the furniture and then lay towels over the floor. If the speaker continues I disrobe and cover my splendid nakedness with one of those pac-a-mac things, preferably a clear one studded with big cheerful daisies. Should they still be undeterred I lay out a selection of kitchen knives and then place sandwich bags over my hands and feet. Lastly I place a shower cap upon my errant locks and a dust mask over my smiling face. Then I put on the radio very loud and walk right up to them, lean into their face and...wink.
    
    I liked the Anime joke.
100. • CommentAuthorCaptain Si
     • CommentTimeSep 27th 2010

      
     Things I have read (thus far)
     
     Batgirl # 14 (i think - Supergirl's in it anyway). A frankly preposterous plot, involving a goofy science project that creates hard light holograms of moving images (its the future!) brings a lot of Draculas alive from an old movie theatre. Batgirl and Supergirl investigate and save the day! Hooray! It sounds utter nonsense, but it works by being lively and fun. I like that Stephanie and Kara are friends (must have missed this meeting in some other DC book) and they share some great banter "Aren't you gonna...you know..." "Not unless you wanna see my bra." "Does it have a bat on it?". Brilliant. The other thing this put in my mind, is this is the kind of stuff i was hoping for in Supergirl's own book, but in never came, just a load of random stories and no attempt to ground her and make her interesting.
     
     Invincible Iron Man # 30 Oh right. Tony left his party with the Hammer lady so he could drive around in his car with her really fast and have an argument and then a fight. Um, okay. A bit of an off day for Matt Fraction, who picks up the slack in the final few pages when Tony gets in his whizzy new test car thing. Jared probably wont like this, as its the same sort of nonsense not-quite-explained ethereal future technology type stuff that featured in the second movie :-P
     
     Shadowland : Ghost Rider One Shot. The Shadowland crossover sounds like the sort of tedious planned by committee nonsense that gave us the tremendous Midnight Sons back in the '90s. Aparently, the Hand want to corrupt Matt Murdoch's soul by making him be in charge of...the Hand. Well that is sure an evil plan right there. Given that (in my limited reading experiences) Daredevil has never struck me as a super natural character, this seems completely at odds with that characters M.O. and I'm not sure what I make of it. Anyway, thats by the by. This is the first Ghost Rider comic since Jason Aaron's run came to an end, so how does it stand up? Pretty well, actually. Crayton Crain does his usual bang up job on the art chores (mercifully, its not a murky mess like his stuff for that undead X-Men crossover jamboree) and Rob Williams does a cracking job of getting to grips with ol' Ghostie. Although, if I'm being picky, there's a huge faux pas when Johnny Blaze is killed by the Hand...and he goes to Heaven, despite um, his soul belonging to the Devil. If its true that Marvel axed GR simply 'cos Aaron was more interested in doing Punisher, then they could have asked Williams. Sigh.
     
     X23 # 1 Bloody hell. This is why I very rarely bother with X-men comics. They are utterly impenetrable to outsiders. Although a first issue, this seems to follow on from the latest catastrophy to hit the X-men ( take your pick - its like f**king Eastenders). Laura is plagued by nightmares concerning Logan (which - hooray - tie into two other X-books, Wolverine and er, Draven the Dark Wolverine - yes,yes, stop sniggering at the back...). She goes to Xaviers (possibly) and mingles with her peer group (a bunch of mutants that aren't even name checked, except Surge, and I have no clue who any of them are. Or why I should care), one of whom has hilariously lost his hands. Its not really funny, but I couldn't help but laugh. Also: Majorie Liu has tired of Black Widow already?!