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2011-03-06T21:33:00.001-05:00

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Comic Book Movie Review: The Spirit

2008-12-26T20:31:00.005-05:00

The Spirit was an over-the-top, ridiculous movie, and I enjoyed it...mostly. There are times when it is evident that this is Frank Miller's first attempt at directing a movie on his own. These moments mainly show up in scenes with Louis Lombardi's multiple characters. The timing created by the editing together was often awkward. I also do not think the scenes with Lorelei, the Spirit's angel of death, were necessary. While the sequences make sense to someone that has some knowledge of the comics, they would be utterly confusing and distracting to someone that does not know who she is. Miller tries to explain it, but I'm not sold that it worked in the movie.

This movie is very well cast. Gabriel Macht, someone I had never heard of, did a great job with the personality of the Spirit. His voice-over narration add quite a bit to the movie. In fact, all of the actors had the personality of the characters down pretty well. Well, maybe with the exception of Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of the Octopus. Having not read any stories with him as the villain, I cannot say for certain if this truly how the Octopus acted. The interactions between all of the characters was a strong point of the movie. While I do not know if Sam Jackson accurately portrayed The Octopus, he certainly was entertaining. He was a good villain to be opposite of Macht's Spirit.

Do I think this movie will be successful? Not likely. There are several factors working against it. The first is timing. There are four other movies opening this weekend, all with big name actors in starring roles. Secondly, this really is an odd movie. In staying true to the spirit of the comic (no pun intended), Miller has made a movie that might be a bit on the inaccessible side to the common movie-goer. Lastly, it is being labeled as a Sin City copy. While the previews have reinforced this label, I do think it is a fair one. This movie is not Sin City. This is as much Sin City as All-Star Superman was New X-men. (Grant Morrison and Frank Quitley did both books, for those that do not get the reference.) There are moments that go into the black and white silhouette shot, but only to highlight moments. The vast majority of the movie is shot in a faded color, noir style. The style works for the movie.

I do recommend seeing this movie, but try to go in with an open mind, and maybe some knowledge about the comics.

Astonishing reading guide

2008-11-25T15:59:00.000-05:00

Still working on my X-Men multi-book reading guide (that will accompany my history) - I'm now working on the period between House of M and Messiah CompleX. It would seem that Astonishing X-Men #13-24 (with the Giant Size at the end) will go between X-Men #204 and the Messiah CompleX one-shot. This is completely because of the Kitty Pryde Factor - Kitty was a part of the title in the X-Men story, but was conspicuously missing from Messiah CompleX (leading many readers to guess the ending). The two storylines, however, interlock together giving no break point to allow any other storylines to take place. This was not the case with the first two storylines of the title - in which two issues of Uncanny and a five-issue mini-series fit in - but cannot be avoided here. The X-Men story is the last one before Messiah starts, and Kitty is in that story. Fortunately, Astonishing is really good, so it won't be a pain in reading.

From the Box: X-Men #62-64

2008-11-25T11:41:00.001-05:00

I've been working on an extended history of the X-Men following the main team's 45 year history. As I sat down to work on it, I realized there was quite a bit in the way of details that I had forgotten, so I went back and started to re-read the series. With my biggest hole in knowledge falling in the mid-90s, I created a reading order list for the two main titles (Uncanny and X-Men) and got to it. Why it took me so long to realize that this would be a good time to work on From the Box is anyone's guess. But I digress - let's move on.

This storyline comes at somewhat of a transition point for the X-Men. Falling after Onslaught but just before Operation: Zero Tolerance, the story is basically using three issues to kill time while reminding everyone that the plot point of the Legacy Virus is still out there. Another transition point is that Scott Lobdell was still pulling double duty on the X-Titles, as a replacement for Mark Waid had not yet been added, so while Lobdell was handling plot, Ben Raab took scripting duty. I am familiar with Raab as the closing writer for Excalibur, having the unenviable task of following up an enjoyable run by Warren Ellis. Tough luck, man.

But the main story on the creative team is that it's the debut issue on art for Carlos Pacheco, and to celebrate the occasion, #62 was released with two covers - both by Pacheco. Even though the book was in its 60s by this point (issue count, not age), Pacheco was just the third regular artist for the title, following Andy Kubert, who came in when Jim Lee left the book. Pacheco would stick around for a year before heading off for other projects, and it was more often good art for Marvel's merry mutants.

The story features an odd grouping of the X-Men in Cyclops, Wolverine, Phoenix, Storm and Cannonball as the rest of the team - Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Bishop and Joseph - had been sent to Shi'ar space over in Uncanny. These X-Men answer a summons from an old acquaintance of Wolverine's, but come across a battle between Shang-Chi (Master of Kung-Fu!) and a bunch of ninjas. No, really. Wolverine helps out, threatens Shang for no reason, then all is explained and they go after the fabled Elixir Vitae of Shang-Chi's father, which may or may not be able to cure the Legacy Virus.

Now let me stop right there, because that's really all you need to know about this story. Nothing else substantial happens. The X-Men come across a very-much alive Sebastian Shaw who sends them to Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) who actually has the Elixir, then after Shaw and Fisk threaten each other, Storm blows the whole thing up and no one gets anything. Seriously - that's it. There's not really even a climactic moment to finish it up - Storm gets tired of waiting for one and blows everything up. The X-Men fly home and all is fine.

There were 2.5 character returns in this story, in Shang-Chi, Kingpin and half of one to Shaw, who had actually returned to life quite a while earlier in the pages of X-Force. Shang-Chi served no purpose in the story, aside from lending his father's Elixir to the story. For those of you not up on your Marvel B-listers, Shang-Chi's father was Fu Manchu, though by this point Marvel no longer had the rights to use his name, so he was simply referred to as "your father". Kingpin had been chucked from the New York underworld by Daredevil, though I have no idea as to his timeline, so I couldn't tell you how this all lined up. Apparently, though, this was a big deal. To my knowledge, this remains the only interaction between Wilson Fisk and the X-Men, but I'll fact check myself later.

What really makes this story suck, though, is the writing. Lobdell's plot is pretty thin, and Raab's script is downright awful. I cannot recall a storyline in which more exposition has been tossed out in page after page. An entire page is used for Kingpin to share through inner-monologue the entire history of Hong Kong. Shang Chi thinks about the X-Men's mission statement once per issue. He starts calling Storm 'wind-rider' right after he meets her. He also refers to the Legacy Virus as that thing he had been hearing so much of in the news, though the X-Men had just explained it all to him a few minutes prior. Cannonball repeatedly refers to himself as the 'greenest' of the X-Men (demonstrating how badly the character was handled at this point) and both Wolverine and Jubilee (in an O:ZT interlude) take turns mentioning that he is the best at what he does.

Pacheco's art is the bright point of this story, as all of his characters are quite nice to look at, though Phoenix and Storm have a bit of the overly rounded look (if you catch my drift) that was so prevalent in the 90s. His Wolverine looks awful, but that's hardly his fault. This was during the time when somebody thought it would be a good idea to devolve Wolverine into a beast-like humanoid, and give him a perpetually ripped costume with bandana. He looked strange in it, and downright horrible with 'street clothes' on. Fortunately, just after O:ZT, the look was abandoned and Wolverine returned to being human.

This story is recommended only for completists and those wondering just how the X-Men got on a plane for the start of O:ZT. Other than that, try to stay upwind from this one. It's a stinker.

Tidbits

2008-11-16T17:49:00.002-05:00

Secret Invasion and Final Crisis cost.

Newsarama had an interesting article calculating the total cost if someone were to buy everything tied into both major events. In a nutshell if you do not want to read the article, for someone to buy every Secret Invasion tie-in, it would cost them $378.78. That is 125 issues, averaging a monthly cost of $29.14. For Final Crisis, there are two ways to look at it: without Countdown and Death of the New Gods, and with those two series. The other Countdown tie-ins have nothing to do with Final Crisis. So, the total cost for Final Crisis without (and with) is $135.08 ($317.56). The "with" figure totals 95 issues with an average monthly cost of $15.12, aided by the year-long nature of Countdown.

Blue Beetle getting cancelled.

This has been suspected of getting cancelled for some time, as its sales have been abysmal for quite some time. I gave this series a chance when it started, but it got cut after issue #4. It was not cut because it was a bad book, I was just trying to cut back. I have always heard good things about this book, but it seems like it could not find an audience. Kind of like Manhunter.

New Watchmen trailer.

There is a new preview for Watchmen on Yahoo! Movies. It is neat. If you have not already seen, I suggest you do.

Some Important Differences to Note

2008-11-08T02:12:00.007-05:00

DC Cancels Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey

2008-11-05T19:20:00.004-05:00

DC confirmed to Newsarama that they were canceling Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey, with February being the last issues to come out. DC did not confirm why these books were getting canceled, but I have a few thoughts on the matter.

First thought that comes to mind is the timing of it. Didio has said that the DCU will reflect what happens in Final Crisis starting in March. Also, the R.I.P storyline in Batman is almost completed. After its completion, a "Battle for the Cowl" storyline has been hinted upon, and teased, as shown by the promotional buttons I received at The Zone. (There was also one picturing Hush, but I did not feel like finding it for the picture.) Also, sales on these titles have been solid. Not necessarily good, but solid. This leads me to believe that the cancelations are story-driven.

Now, from a story-driven cancelation, there are two likely possibilites. These books are canceled, and new books are launched, starting with issue #1. (I personally do not understand the fascination with #1 issues for the sake of giving someone a place they feel like they can jump onto a title. Likewise, I do not buy the excuse for not getting into a book because it has too much history. I do not pick who I talk to based on the amount of history I have to learn about them. But I digress.) The rumor I saw floating around is that after "R.I.P." two books would be launched, titled Red Robin and Batman & Robin, with the mystery (as of this writing) of who would be in what position, this could work. Another possiblity is that the books are only going on a hiatus for a little while, and then starting where they left off.

Either of these scenarios is possible, and would not be new for DC. When Bart Allen became the Flash, they started Flash: Fastest Man Alive, and this book lasted until his death. When Superman "died," his books went on hiatus for a few months to convince people that Superman was dead.

So, what is the better scenario? Beats me. Anyone that proclaims they know that one of these options will be bad before reading anything is a moron, and does not know what they are talking about. However, I will make a bold prediction. The people that post on the comments pages of CBR and Newsarama will not like whatever Dan Didio says is going to happen. Call it a hunch.

Heroes shake-up

2008-11-03T08:28:00.003-05:00

I've not made it a huge secret that I haven't been a big fan of Jeph Loeb lately. As it turns out, the execs at NBC have had some issues with him as well, as he has been ousted as a writer/producer for the not-as-much-of-a-hit-as-it-used-to-be Heroes, as has Jesse Alexander. The studio is apparently not pleased with the creative direction the show has been going in and the subsequent dip in ratings.

I can't say one way or another whether that was the correct move, as I have no idea of the influence Loeb or Alexander had on the show. What I am aware of is that Heroes needs a bit of fixing to make it once again the powerhouse that it was in its first season. Currently (as of episode 8 of the third season) the show is hardly recognizable from what it had been two seasons prior. Most characters have changed drastically, and some with no purpose whatsoever. Pieces of the plot seem to have been thrown in just to give the main cast something to do, and some characters got way to much screen time only for their stories to go nowhere until they eventually faded away (Maya, Monica). I'm not saying that I'm not still glued to my screen every Monday evening, but the show could probably use some work.

Will this help? I guess we'll see with Chapter 4.

DC's bad, but Marvel ain't so good either

2008-10-30T19:00:00.004-04:00

It's always fun to listen to a back and forth between J.R. and Casey over the major crossover events of both DC and Marvel. If you could not tell, J.R. is a DC fan, while Casey's firmly with the Marvel line. And thus, sides are chosen and the conversations begin. Casey's argument is easier to both make and support, as the company has had a constant string of crossover events that began back in 2004 and still have some time before they wrap up. Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis to Final Crisis with at least one countdown mini series (or numerous ones together) - it's fairly obvious that DC has been completely wrapped up in this.

But don't think that Marvel hasn't been just as bad about the major event crossovers - they're just a little more sneaky about it. The first big one was House of M, followed by a lead-up to Civil War, then the event itself (which was delayed over time), then World War Hulk and finally Secret Invasion, which seems like it has been going on forever. But unlike DC, Marvel was also running crossover events elsewhere - the two Annihilation series for its cosmic characters and Endangered Species and Messiah Complex for the X-Books. That's quite a bit as well.

Think about all the tie-ins Marvel events have gone with as well. For each of the three major arcs, side mini-series have been released to flesh out the story - just like DC did with each of its books. Alongside that, several books have gotten absorbed for several months while the event was going on. House of M claimed numerous titles (from my collection, New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Cable & Deadpool spring to mind) aside from its minis. Civil War did the same thing, tying up New Avengers while putting out several side minis and launching Front Line, which ran 12 issues during the event. World War Hulk tied up Hulk (of course) as well as having its minis and another Front Line. Secret Invasion? Both Avengers titles have been tied up FOREVER, numerous minis have been released and of course, Front Line. From what I read, X-Factor, Captain Britain, Deadpool and others have given issues to the event.

On the other hand, no DC books I'm reading (Booster Gold, Green Arrow and Black Canary, JLA, JSA, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes) have tied into Final Crisis. For that matter, neither have the Batman books (which have a story of their own going). That might give cause for arguing the overall importance of the event, to which I would point to the Marvel events which have their mini-series so the titles themselves do not have to reflect the event. The argument can go back and forth until your head starts spinning. Trust me - I just got mine to stop.

My point here is not to bash Marvel or DC. My point is the show that one cannot justifiably argue about the crossover events of one company using the other as a defense. Both companies are just as bad about them and the sheer number of titles they put out with them. So shut up about it and go read what you enjoy. It's just easier that way.

This Post Was Originally Scheduled for July

2008-10-29T22:51:00.005-04:00

So I just saw this, posted about a week ago that says that J.G. Jones won't be drawing the last issue of the much ballyhooed Final Crisis. I can't say much about the series, since I gave up on it after reading the first issue. I haven't even heard much about what's going on in the book or in the slew of related mini-series that seem to come out every week. It may be a convoluted mess or it may be the single greatest DC story ever told, I can't say. If it turns out to be the latter, I'll read it. The former, I just saved myself some time. That's the lesson I learned after Infinite Crisis.

But enough complaining about DC. The point of this post is about punctuality. Specifically the punctuality of artists. Even more specifically, the punctuality of artists who happen to be working on heavily hyped series that were announced and being worked on long before they were scheduled to hit the shelves.

Now, if I'm not mistaken, J.G. Jones had around a year's worth of lead in time for his work on Final Crisis. In fact, I think I mentioned that in this post I made a while back:

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started."

So Grant Morrison (That's what GM stands for, in case you were wondering) started writing the book in the spring of 2006. Jones began drawing it in the spring of 2007. The first issue of Final Crisis came out in May of this year. And it's not like Jones was drawing anything else at the time. Sounds to me like he had a year to work on it. He made it through the first couple issues okay, but then issue number three was delayed. It was announced that issues four through six will feature Carlos Pacheco as a fill-in artist. And now the seventh and final issue will be drawn by Doug Mahnke with no J.G. Jones at all.

Over on the Marvel side of things, Joe Maduriera is just as guilty. He was announced as the artist for Ultimates 3 in the fall of 2005. It was his first work for Marvel since 1997 and his first comics work in five years. Since Maduriera's last comic, his creator owned Battle Chasers series, was often severely delayed until he gave up on it after nine issues fans questioned his ability to get a series out on a regular schedule. In an interview with Wizard, series writer Jeph Loeb assured everyone that since there would be a several month break between the last issue of Ultimates 2 and the first issue of 3, he and Maduriera would have plenty of time to get issues done and keep the book ahead of schedule. Even if he Jeph Loeb couldn't finish his scripts until the last issue of Ultimates 2 came out in the spring of 2007 (And it's not like Ultimates 3 relys heavily on what happened in one and two. Actually, I don't think Loeb read either of them.) Maduriera still had around six months to work on a five issue miniseries which was the only book he was doing at the time. And still there was a four month delay between issues three and four. What gives?

In an email to Comic Book Resources, Jones summed up his situation thusly:

“Any problems completing the series are my own,” he wrote. “I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”

Wow. Jones either seems disappointed that he couldn't finish the series or bitter than he was taken off of it. Or both.

What problems could have come up that would get these artists so far behind schedule? How could you have approximately a year or better head start on a project and still fall behind on it? Are they sick, distracted, a perfectionist, or just plain lazy? Or is it the comic companies they work for having unreal expectations?

Just so you know

2008-10-17T08:03:00.002-04:00

Good lord, I am sick of Skrulls.

In honor of tonight's debate

2008-10-15T11:45:00.002-04:00

Heroes Recap: Volume 3: Chapter 3

2008-09-30T08:46:00.001-04:00

Each week, Comicdom Wrecks! (whose staff consists of three Heroes-loving nerds) will be recapping the most recent episode of Heroes. Lost somewhere in the season? Forgot something that's taken place? Check the Recaps to find what you may have missed.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

9/29/08 - Volume 3: Chapter 3 (One of Us, One of Them)

Story 1 – Villains Escape (Peter, Angela, Sylar, HRG)
The escaped villains, with Peter still inside Jesse, rob a bank. When the police arrive, Knox reveals that he called them to allow the Company to find them, giving them the chance for revenge. The German wants no part of the plan, but is killed by Knox with a punch through the stomach. Angela reveals to HRG that his partner will be Sylar, who she is confidant will be able to control the hunger that causes him to kill people for their abilities. The two arrive at the bank, with HRG going in and telling Sylar to remain outside. Inside, Knox has learned that Jesse is an imposter with a trick question and knocks him down, but is distracted by HRG’s arrival and allows Peter to use Jesse’s sound manipulation to knock everyone away. Future Peter arrives and knocks Peter out of Jesse and teleports them both into the future. With Jesse back to himself, the tide turns on HRG, who is actually saved by Sylar. The hunger gets the best of him, however, and he kills Jesse, which in turn allows Knox to flee the scene.

Story 2 – Hiro’s Formula (Hiro, Ando)
Hiro and Ando arrive at a theater in Berlin, Germany where Daphne arrives and tells them that she’s already delivered the first half of the formula and is going after the second half. She runs into the building but finds that her speed is no longer working. Hiro spots the Haitian, whom he recognized from the future, and follows him into the theater. Hiro and Ando set up an interception for the Haitian’s meeting and knock him out, getting the formula. However, with her powers functioning again, Daphne quickly steals the second half of the formula and takes off. Hiro and Ando barely have time to react before the Haitian recovers and captures them. They are then incarcerated in Level Two of Primatech.

Story 3 – Nathan in Congress (Nathan, Linderman, Tracy)
Nathan is sworn in as Senator from New York, but is distressed to find that Tracy is missing. Traveling to her home, he finds her distressed about Niki Sanders, which again has Nathan questioning whether that’s who she really is. Tracy travels to New Orleans to find Niki, but discovers in a funeral home that Niki has died. She is spotted by Niki’s son Micah, who realizes that she’s not his mom, but helps her understand that she’s not the only person with powers. He uses his power to compare all the data he can find about the two women and learns that they were born on the same day by the same doctor, a Dr. Zimmerman. Tracy finds the man who reveals that he “created” her.

Story 4 – Parkman in the Desert (Parkman)
Usutu brings Parkman to an area of rocks he has painted upon, depicting stages of Parkman’s life. Parkman questions one of him and a woman, happy, but Usutu tells him that this one no longer exists, as the future has changed. He sits down and goes into a “painting trance” (like that of Isaac Mendez). When Usutu comes out of his painting trance, Parkman sees that he’s replaced the painting of a happy family with one of him holding a woman he doesn’t recognize. He questions what the whole thing means, and follows Usutu’s guidance and goes into a similar trance himself.

Story 5 – Suresh’s Formula (Suresh, Maya)
Neither Suresh nor Maya appear in this episode.

Story 6 – Claire’s Mission (Claire)
Finding herself unable to return to the menial tasks of high school, Claire asks her mother Meredith to train her to fight so she can take on villains from her dad’s files. Meredith takes her to a storage container and ignites the air around them, making it impossible for Claire to breathe. After much demanding, Claire finally reveals that her desire to battle is not to ‘save the world’ but to hurt villains like Sylar who caused her so much pain.

Debuts

Bridget Bailey (Tehmina Sunny) – An employee of the Company who can see the history of any object.
Dr. Zimmerman (Ronald Guttman) – A doctor apparently responsible for the “creation” of Niki and Tracy.

Deaths

Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) – While she didn’t actually die in this episode, her final fate is revealed.
Bridget Bailey (Tehmina Sunny) – Killed by Sylar.
The German (Ken Lally) – Killed by Knox as an example to the others.
Jesse Murphy (Francis Capra) – Killed by Sylar.

Revelations

The Haitian is still working for the Company.
Sylar has gained the ability to learn the history of an object on contact as well as sound manipulation.
Usutu’s power is revealed to be precognitive painting.

Chapters 1 & 2

Longshot and Dazzler

2008-09-25T12:00:00.003-04:00

In last week's X-Factor #35, oft-forgotten X-Man Longshot debuted in the title, apparently set to join the cast. As he had not been seen in several months (since the end of Exiles), a bit of exposition came forth in a conversation between him and Strong Guy. It was there that Longshot explained why he was no longer in a relationship with Dazzler (as they had last been seen) and commented that there was really nothing between the two of them - that the whole thing seemed forced. It was (in my eyes) a well-deserved comment on the part of Peter David on the longtime relationship between the two characters. I found it to be quite amusing.

The explanation is not exactly simple, and a history lesson of Longshot and Dazzler is forthcoming to help get you through it. You're welcome.

Longshot debuted in a cult-classic self-titled mini-series, and was quickly shoehorned into the X-Men in an annual that also featured the debut of the X-Babies (and that's all I'm saying about that one). He briefly vanished during the Mutant Massacre, only to show back up in its aftermath, in which he quickly became a member of the new team. An amusing trait of the character was his attractiveness to the opposite sex (mullet notwithstanding), and his naivity to the matter due to his nature. However, that was quickly abandoned in a suddenly developed relationship between him and his teammate Dazzler.

The Longshot relationship always puzzled me during the "Australian Era" of 80s X-Men. The dialogue would have you believe that there was a love-triangle going between him, Dazzler and Rogue, but this really never was touched upon in the stories themselves. Dazzler and Longshot were just sort of a couple until he left the team right after Inferno. All right, to be fair, they did get a bit physical at one point, but they were possessed by demons at the time.

It was sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind once Longshot left the team, as Dazzler began hitting on Havok (chicks dig moody depressants, after all) and then got her mind wiped by a journey through the Siege Perilous. Wherever writer Chris Claremont was planning on taking either story (Longshot's departure and Dazzler's amnesia) didn't come to anything by the time he left the book. It was plotter Jim Lee and scripter John Byrne who actually finished the Longshot story, pulling in Dazzler and restoring her memories in the process. The battle left Longshot in charge of the Mojoverse, Dazzler pregnant, and the readers feeling that the relationship was much more than earlier stories had ever implied it to be. So they lived happily ever after.

Or not so much.

Turns out that a universe-ruling Longshot and an expecting Dazzler weren't too interesting. In fact, the few writers that did use either character often didn't use them together, with an obligatory reference to how the other one was doing just for fun. Dazzler was given an implied miscarriage by Fabian Nicieza just after the Age of Apocalypse and the two were sort-of broken up when Dazzler showed up to help the X-Men apparently unaware of where Longshot might be. She settled into random guest appearances here and there and he ended up in Limbo (the unused kind, not the demon kind).

Eventually, Longshot was brought into the Exiles, though he had no memories of his past life. This was a welcome attempt to get him back to the basics of his character that had become lost over the years of sort-of romances and universal uprisings. He stayed with the team until the title ended with a Chris Claremont written crossover between the Exiles and New Excalibur (of which Dazzler was a member) and almost all of the characters were shuffled so an all-Claremont-created team could relaunch Exiles. For Longshot, this meant heading back to Earth with Dazzler in an effort to rekindle their romance. So they lived happily ever after.

Or not so much.

Turns out the Longshot/Dazzler coupling is still not interesting, and really hasn't ever been. The effort to put them back together after all of their convoluted non-use felt like a forced issue. They were together in X-Men, they should be together now. That's exactly how it was presented in Longshot's X-Factor appearance when he flat out said it felt more and more awkward trying to make it work when it really didn't. So finally, Dazzler and Longshot have both returned as usable characters in the X-World. Let's just hope they stay away from each other this time.

Recipe for suck: add comic characters to FPS game

2008-09-23T13:45:00.003-04:00

I spotted this baby on the Playstation Blog today:

For those of you too lazy to click the link, the news is that this new game is going to be released exclusively for the PSN - all you X-Box Live users can suck it.

Actually, no not really. The game is an arena-based multi-player first person shooter using the engine of whichever Unreal Tournament game came out last. That means you connect to a server, you show up in a room, you kill other players. No story necessary.

Now, I am aware that there is a dedicated fanbase for FPS games like this one, but if history teaches us anything, changing the rather colorful cast of storyless characters that can be blown up repeatedly into comic-based ones doesn't really work. Comics are illustrated stories. When you create a game, you need to have some kind of story there.

So what's the history that teaches us this? Many moons ago, there was a Quake II conversion that featured the X-Men...except your mission was to go around blowing up the X-Men. The game didn't go over to well and can actually be downloaded for free at numerous sites, provided you have a working copy of Quake II.

Will I be buying this? No sir, I don't think so. It just seems lazy to me.

Heroes Recap - Volume 3: Chapters 1 and 2

2008-09-23T11:18:00.008-04:00

Each week, Comicdom Wrecks! (whose staff consists of three Heroes-loving nerds) will be recaping the most recent episode of Heroes. Lost somewhere in the season? Forgot something that's taken place? Check the Recaps to find what you may have missed.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

9/23/09 - Volume 3: Chapters 1 & 2 (The Second Coming, The Butterfly Effect)

Wrapping Up – Who Shot Nathan?
Most of the themes of this arc are set up immediately with the answer to who shot Nathan in last season’s finale. Peter (the scarred one from the future) travels back in time to stop Nathan from announcing the existence of superhuman powers to the world, thereby preventing his timeline. The problem is that the longer he stays in the past to make sure the job has been completed, the more of what was supposed to happen is disrupted.

Story 1 – Villains Escape (Peter, Angela, Sylar, HRG, Claire)
Claire gets a visit from Sylar who cuts her head open and studies her brain, gaining her healing. When she heals from the attack, she can no longer feel pain, which she begins to associate with the loss of her soul. While with Claire, Sylar finds a file on Level 5 of Primatech, which houses some of the most dangerous prisoners ever dealt with by the company. He kills Bob, gaining his transmutation, but is confronted by Elle and HRG, both of whom he quickly dispatches. As he tries to cut open Elle’s head, she instinctively unleashes a torrent of electricity that shorts out the building’s security and sets the prisoners free. Unbeknownst to them, one of them is possessed by Peter, whom his future alter-ego locked within the mind of a prisoner. Angela, now in charge of the company with Bob’s death, fires Elle and warns the future version of her son that he had better get to fixing this mess he made. Sylar, who was knocked out by Elle’s attack, is held prisoner in a Level 5 cell. At the Bennet house, HRG prepares to go after the escaped prisoners, and leaves Claire in the care of her birth mother. The escaped villains, unknowingly joined by Peter, kill two people and escape in their car.

Story 2 – Hiro’s Formula (Hiro, Ando)
Bored out of his mind after becoming majority owner of his father’s company, Hiro is excited to receive a video recorded by his father before his death. The video tells of half a formula locked away that could possibly destroy the world. As soon as Hiro opens the safe, the formula is stolen by Daphne, a speedster who is not completely subject to Hiro’s abilities. Unwilling to travel back in time, Hiro travels forward to discover what the formula could possibly do, but witnesses his own death at the hands of Ando, who seemingly possesses lightning powers. As Tokyo explodes, Hiro returns to the present, doubtful of Ando and determined to get his formula back. A private investigator discovers the name and address of the crook. Hiro and Ando travel to France and set a trap for Daphne, allowing Hiro to plant a tracer on her. They follow her path, planning to get the other half of the formula before she can.

Story 3 – Nathan in Congress (Nathan, Linderman, Tracy)
Doctors rush to save Nathan’s life, but are ultimately unsuccessful. As Peter looks over his brother’s body, his wounds heal and he regains consciousness. As he convalesces, he is visited by Mr. Linderman, who begins telling him of what he is capable of. Nathan travels to the hospital chapel, and before news cameras, gives a monologue about how he has been blessed by God, no longer willing to reveal his secret. This change of heart prevents Peter (future) from shooting him again. The news coverage brings Nathan to the attention of the governor of New York Robert Malden, whose assistant Tracy recommends that Nathan be appointed as the replacement for the recently deceased senator from New York. When Tracy visits Nathan, he mistakes her for Niki Sanders and is skeptical of the offer, but eventually accepts it under the advice of Linderman, as long as Tracy serves on his staff. Tracy herself is confronted by a reporter who accuses her of being Niki Sanders, and even produces hotel security footage of Niki and Nathan together during Nathan’s campaign. As Tracy lays a hand on the reporter, his entire body freezes and shatters, causing her to run in fear.

Story 4 – Parkman in the Desert (Parkman)
Parkman finds Peter in a storage closet, apparently searching for the gun that was used to shoot Nathan. When he questions Peter about it, unaware that he is actually a version of Peter from the future, Peter transports Parkman to Africa and leaves him stranded there. After walking for some time, Parkman collapses. He is visited by a large turtle, who points him to a water-enriched root. As he thanks the turtle, he is found by a man who knows his identity, but is unnerved that the transpiring events are not how he painted them.

Story 5 – Suresh’s Formula (Suresh, Maya)
Having sent Molly to a secret location to keep her safe, Suresh begins working with Maya on locating the source of the superhuman abilities. When she tells him that her powers manifest when she becomes upset and fade when she calms, he succeeds in creating a formula that theoretically can manifest powers in any human. She tells him that it should be destroyed, but instead he injects himself with it and manifests heightened strength, speed and other senses. He becomes uncharacteristically aggressive and sleeps with Maya, before waking up to find that a piece of his shoulder seems to be peeling off.

Extras
Knocking out the future – Peter’s presence disrupts key events in the future:

When Claire calls wanting to help, he tells her to stay put, leaving her home alone when Sylar comes knocking.
Sylar’s presence in the house gives him access to the Level 5 file, which sends him in that direction and leads to the villains’ escape.
Sylar’s attack leaves Claire unable to feel pain, which has her questioning her humanity.
Nathan’s wounds lead to his spiritual revelation, which gains him the attention that leads to his nomination.
Parkman is sent to Africa, where he is told he is not supposed to be.
The Peter of the present is locked in the mind of one of the Level 5 inmates when they escape.

Debuts

Tracy Strauss (Ali Larter) – Advisor to Governor Malden, she is seemingly identical to Niki Sanders, though she apparently does not know the woman. Seemingly possesses freezing abilities.
Daphne Millbrook (Brea Grant) – Speedster and master thief, her stealing of Hiro’s formula has made her his declared nemesis.
Flint (Blake Shields) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing pyrokinesis.
Jesse Murphy (Francis Capra) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing sound manipulation abilities. The host body of Peter Petrelli.
The German (Ken Lally) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing magnetism manipulation.
Knox (Jamie Hector) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing fear-based powers.
Robert Malden (Bruce Boxleitner) – Governor of New York looking to fill a vacated Senate chair.
Usutu (N’Tare Mwine) – An African man who discovers Parkman in the desert. Apparently possesses the ability of precognition, represented through paintings (perhaps like Isaac Mendez).

Deaths

Bob Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky) – killed by Sylar for his abilities.

Revelations

Angela Petrelli’s power is revealed to be precognitive dreaming. This was hinted at in the first season, as Peter first began envisioning his and his brother’s powers in dreams.
With Bob’s death, the only surviving founders of the Company are Angela Petrelli, Maury Parkman and Adam Monroe.
Sylar has gained the abilities of healing and transmutation.

Value to whom, exactly?

2008-09-19T13:22:00.001-04:00

I have always been a follower of the belief that something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. So while watching a video about the San Diego Comic Con, I was puzzled by an old Flash comic, graded (and therefore sealed) of course, going for $65,000. Why in the world would anyone pay that much for a comic they can't even read? Just to sell it to someone else?

I will never buy a graded comic, and will never send my out for the treatment. I just don't get it - like people who won't take Transformers out of the box.

Millar to launch Ultimate Avengers, making Ultimates as useless as it is bad

2008-09-11T08:46:00.002-04:00

Next year, Marvel will be launching a new title - Ultimate Avengers - written by Mark Millar who is credited by many to be pretty much the co-father of the Ultimate universe, with Brian Bendis (think My Two Dads). According to Millar in a CBR interview, the new title will be six issue stories in which Nick Fury gathers heroes to fight threats to the Ultimate universe.

Now I know what you're thinking - isn't there already an Ultimate Avengers of sorts in The Ultimates? Why yes, yes there is. But don't worry about that book - it's terrible and it looks to remain terrible for the near future.

I find it...intriguing that Marvel would bring back Millar and put him on a book whose concept is so much like an existing title...when that book seems to be losing the direction that originally made it such a hit. I, for one, am excited. After all, I dropped Ultimates 3 after three issues. I would love to get Millar back to the Ultimate U.

Watchmen Movie Troubles

2008-08-27T20:58:00.002-04:00

Here is a good article from the New York times about the legal battle between Fox and Warner Bros. over the rights Watchmen.

From the Box: The X-Cutioner's Song

2008-08-22T09:18:00.004-04:00

After great effort (and a lot of help from the Marvel Chronology Project) I put together a reading order of my archive of X-Men back issues and got to reading, starting at the 1991 launch of the second X-Men book (now called X-Men: Legacy). Not too far in, I came upon the 12-part, 4-title crossover, the X-Cutioner's Song. I've had the trade paperback of this for a while, but it always seemed to convoluted to really get into - but as I didn't want to read only half of the story, I dusted it off and got to it.

It was a laborious read, I'll have you know. To get into, you need to have some knowledge about past X-Force/New Mutants history as well as X-Factor knowledge. The basics are thus:

Stryfe, who leads a bunch of generic villains known as the Mutant Liberation Front, looks exactly like X-Force leader Cable when not wearing his helmet.
Apocalypse has two (rather redundant) groups of followers: the Four Horsemen and the Dark Riders. Neither should be in action without Apocalypse, who has been MIA since a battle with the original X-Factor.
Mr. Sinister has a thing for Scott Summers and his juicy DNA (ewwww).
The New Mutants left the X-Mansion to become X-Force, and none of the X-Teams particularly enjoy that.
No one has much love for Cable.
Cyclops was forced to send his son into the future after the baby was infected (by Apocalypse) with the techno-organic virus.

Once you have that down, we can get underway. Apparently, Cable shoots Professor X at a Lila Cheney concert, the Dark Riders (not working for Mr. Sinister instead of Apocalypse) kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey, who are then traded to Stryfe for Summers DNA, which is a ruse - the container actually unleashes the Legacy Virus. The X-Men and X-Factor go after X-Force to get Cable, jail them, go around fighting for a while, then end up on the moon when Stryfe and Cable duke it out until Cyclops detonates a time portal. Ending comes, la la la. Oh yeah, Stryfe is apparently Cyclops' son who happens to be a little bitter about what happened to him. You can understand that, right?

The story, while about four parts too long, wasn't anything terrible. It got all the teams together, tied up a couple loose plot threads (for a while) and put a lot of focus on Wolverine, Cable and Bishop - the overly popular characters in the huge muscles, huge guns era of the early 90s. Looking back, with over 15 years having passed between then and now, the story doesn't really hold up too well.

Down the line, someone decided the son should be the good guy, so it was revealed that Cable was actually Cyclops' son, not Stryfe.
The crossover was a prominent reason that Peter David left X-Factor. The book would continue on with sub-par storylines for years, then sink into drivel before being retooled into the even worse Mutant X.
Shortly therafter, a character was introduced actually called the X-Cutioner (a name so ridiculous, you'd think they went back in time to the Silver Age to make it) that had absolutely nothing to do with this story. Later readers would be confused by the two.
Apocalypse had yet another death scene, this time in front of Archangel. That would have meant something had he not been revived when someone else needed a benevolent villain to stand around and holler nonsense.
The story's epilogue released the Legacy Virus, which was a really big deal at first with characters worrying about the quickly-spreading disease infecting "hundreds" of mutants, and killing off big names like Magik, Mastermind and...uh...Revanche. Eventually, the Legacy Virus hit the background when (I suppose) creators didn't want to kill off major characters for the hell of it and the "hundreds" turned out to mostly be Genoshan mutates. No one seemed to notice when Moira MacTaggert and Pyro held on for years with the disease when everyone else died in like five days. Eventually, the virus was done away with at the cost of Colossus.

And thus you have the legacy of the X-Cutioner's Song. If you're aching to dive in, check out the trade. Actually, I managed to find all twelve individual issues for 50 cents each in a bargain bin, some even in the original bag complete with card! How X-Citing!

Origins can be good

2008-08-20T08:45:00.002-04:00

Back in April, .I complained about the solicitation of an X-Men: Origins one-shot starring Colossus. I felt there was simply no reason to expand a character like Colossus' origin to anything that would warrant it's own one-shot. I didn't buy the book, but reviews I read (such as this one from Paul O'Brien's X-Axis) pretty much summed up my thoughts on it: nothing unreadable, but pretty much unnecessary.

However, when I saw a solicitation for another X-Men: Origins book starring Jean Grey, I was more intrigued. Jean Grey was (as she's still dead) a character with a pretty interesting back story before she got to the X-Men. For those of you not in the know, when Jean Grey debuted in X-Men #1 back in 1963, her lone power was telekinesis. Over time, she was given telepathy and a back story was provided to explain why she had not used them the whole time: while still a child, her best friend was hit by a car. Jean telepathically connected with her as she died, which mentally scarred her. Professor X was called in to help heal the damage, and he blocked off her telepathic powers until she was ready for them.

The Origins issue is a retelling of that story with a heavier focus on what Xavier actually did, and it's excellent work. The writing works and the painted art is gorgeous. It shows that you don't have to add new events to an origin for an issue like this. Just expand on what's already been established to allow readers to get a better grip on the character.

There's another one coming out soon for Beast, so let's hope that quality too.

Happy Friday

2008-07-18T07:45:00.004-04:00

From Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin (which you should be reading):

Some people might wonder just how the Dark Knight managed to end up with his upper body in the mouth of a mechanical sea monster whilst wearing a kilt...but I think I'll just go with it without asking questions.

New Comic Day points

2008-07-17T08:26:00.003-04:00

This week's titles: X-Factor, X-Force, Mighty Avengers

I finally have my compromise on X-Force. Take it for exactly what it is and don't worry about the bigger picture and it's actually not that bad.
Larry Strohman's return on X-Factor after over 15 years since his last run has left me uninspired. Of course, I wasn't huge on him back then either.
I couldn't tell you which of the Secret Invasion stories happened in Mighty or New Avengers. The books are once again on hold while the big story goes on.
The majority of the opening arc of X-Force doesn't really need the team in it. Take them out and just toss in someone else hacking off Angel's wings, and you arrive at the same point. Just saying.
Have to give it to the X-Teams to going back to basics with most of the books. Focus the entire line and reestablish things like "villains" so 3/4 of the titles aren't running around aimlessly.

Fall Out Boy comic looks to be done - thank god

2008-07-14T19:04:00.004-04:00

Back in February, a press release came out saying that there would be a comic released based on Fall Out Boy. You know, the band. As if the world needed yet another comic book based on real life people stinking up the new comics rack (remember the old WWF and WCW comics?), it seemed that the Dabel Bros. Publishing was gung-ho about showing the band adventuring their way through comicdom (probably in an emo-tional way).

Leave it to the Simpsons to set things right with the world.

Turns out that the name Fall Out Boy has been owned for some time by those wonderful makers of the Simpsons. It also turns out that they don't think highly of a comic being released with a name they own by another publisher. So when the Simpsons lawyers called, the band backed away from the situation. The publisher is apparently still fighting to get it to go, but no one is really psyched about it anymore. They won't even be able to use the name Fall Out Boy for the cover - much like DC can't use the name Captain Marvel as a comic title (despite it being the name of one of their bigger heroes).

So everyone should be content to let this thing fade quickly and quietly from memory...until the band's drummer Andy Hurley apparently made a douche bag out of himself by giving an interview to Comic Book Resources saying that the project was never approved and sounded lame to him, even though he had apparently been all for it until the Simpsons thing started. So the publisher turns around and gets in a tizzy about that and now it looks like we really won't be getting a Fall Out Boy comic.

Believe me, my heart bleeds.

The Loeb universe

2008-06-30T13:27:00.002-04:00

I'm a bit puzzled by the recent works on longtime writer Jeph Loeb. To me, Loeb's name always gave me pleasant memories of his workings with Tim Sale and even his lesser-known, yet still enjoyable run on the post-Age of Apocalypse X-Force. Before his exclusive signing with Marvel, I was enjoying most of his run on Superman/Batman and his credited episodes of the series Heroes on NBC have been fantastic. Good stuff, I would think.

Since his Marvel return, he's been hit-and-miss, with more of an emphasis on miss. I strayed away from Onslaught: Reborn not because of him, but because of Rob Liefeld's art and because it was an anniversary story that should never have been made. I'm sure it was good for what it was...or something like that. My first exposure was his Wolverine storyline "Evolution" which was pretty much abysmal. If you didn't catch it, check out the X-Axis' review of it. While Wolverine isn't one of my pulls, Casey faithfully reads it and shared with me the issues, and I had trouble getting through the whole thing. Blatant contradictions with numerous titles including X-Men and Cable & Deadpool made me shake my head. Never mind the ridiculousness of the whole thing - it was like the editors gave Loeb the go-ahead for anything, then had to go back and correct the details (like showing Feral and Thornn powered when they were victims of M-Day).

Somehow I missed issue #4 of Ultimates 3, but after reading Casey's copy of the issue, I have decided not only to skip the issue, but to drop Ultimates altogether. I have been reading Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men almost since the beginning of their runs. I followed both chapters of Millar and Hitch's Ultimates and am somewhat familiar with Ultimate Fantastic Four. The point here is that I'm quite familiar with the long-building continuity of the Ultimate universe. Loeb, however, has taken that and pretty much thrown it to the wind. It seems like he's decided exactly what he wants to do with which characters and to hell with what's happened before.

Examples of this in just four issues have been the fight with Venom (who has been missing since his debut in Ultimate Spider-Man and is just now returning to the picture), the unexplained arrivals of Black Panther and Valkyrie (who was a non-powered wannabe in Ultimates 2), the blatant romance between Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the changing of Captain America to depressive, and the odd characterization of Hawkeye.

To me, the final clincher was the appearance of Pyro in issue #4 as a homicidal member of Magneto's Brotherhood. That characterization showed me that Loeb did not bother to see what Pyro had done in the title before. He just new that he had appeared, so he got his design and put him in the role he wanted. In actuality, when last we saw Pyro, he was a member of the X-Men and quite amazed to be on the team he was! He had secretly infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front, but was quite on board with the X-Men. How he went from that to murderous psychopath member of the Brotherhood wasn't - and likely won't be - explained. It's Pyro, and Pyro is a villain. So there you go.

The writing in Ultimates 3 seems to be blatantly egotistical, and what kills me is that the editors seem to be turning a complete blind eye to it! As for me, though, I'm tired of questioning why I'm shilling three bucks ~~a month~~ whenever the book comes out for something I'm not enjoying. For the bigger picture, perhaps? Well, that obviously doesn't fit here. Loeb's got his own picture and that's that.

I say enough.

R.I.P. Michael Turner

2008-06-28T11:27:00.002-04:00

Michael Turner passed away last night at the age of 37. He had been battling cancer since the year 2000. For details, check out the CBR article. Personally, I always enjoyed his work, interior or covers.

Is Titans really that big a franchise?

2008-06-25T20:45:00.002-04:00

As far as needless title launches go, I had to give it to DC with Titans - an ongoing with the old-school Titans joining together for no particular reason. Not a lot of setup - just a Titans: East teaser and there you have it!

My problem with this book (and why I decided not to add it to my list) was because the book really doesn't seem to matter. Nightwing is busy in his own book and in the Batman world. A big part of Flash's story in JLA has been his lack of time for his family (in Flash) and the JLA, let alone the Titans, yet in Justice League America #20 he rededicated himself to the league. Red Arrow also has a prominent role in the JLA where his story focused on his graduating into Green Arrow's place on the League - not with the Titans anymore. Donna Troy became a watcher of the Monitors with Kyle Rayner and Ray Palmer at the conclusion of Countdown. Beast Boy rejoined the Doom Patrol during the One Year Later gap and even became leader.

So does all that make Titans a book being put out simply to put a book out? Looks that way to me.

So then I come to the end of this week's Teen Titans #60 and I see that a certain member of the team's adventures will be continued in Terror Titans #1! The Terror Titans are the small group of young villains who have plagued the Titans recently (not to be mistaken for the villainous Titans: East from a few arcs ago). Do they really need their own six issue mini? Does the only Titan going over have enough star power to carry the book? Seems the overwhelming Titans editor thinks so. What's his name here? Ah...a Dan DiDio. Ever heard of him?

This is getting ridiculous. I'm going to be sticking with Teen Titans, thanks. Adult Titans and villain Titans don't particularly interest me. They're missing the point here.

On A-List team books

2008-06-20T07:19:00.002-04:00

I'm a big fan of team books. I really like the aspect of having an ensemble cast of characters coming together to fight for the good cause. If done well, you can have a group of heroes that normally wouldn't shine on their own (ever wonder why Rogue and Gambit series keep getting cancelled?) become a big thing as a group.

Of course, the more popular thing to do is to take your already established characters and shoehorn them together. That's cool - people love seeing their favorite heroes working together. But if you throw too many in, you run into a problem of telling consistent stories without having to stretch the limits of your threat. There's only so much that can challenge a group made up of several near-invulnerable heroes, after all.

In the Justice League, you have the big three - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - two Green Lanterns and the Flash. Never mind the rest of the team (Black Canary, Black Lightning, Vixen, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl and Red Tornado) - with just those six characters, you have the entire power core of the DC heroes. Who is going to stop them?

Once this realization came to me, I quit complaining about the constant villain team-ups. What else can you do against them?

Avengers has had this problem several times. The original line-up featured three of Marvel's biggest solo stars (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor) and added Captain America three issues later. Once the series got going, however, the three originals were gone - replaced by side-characters Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. From this point on, Avengers dug its own character niche in the Marvel Universe - certain characters were Avengers - and that was that.

JSA is like that now. JLA seems to be on the fence about it. On the one hand, the book heavily pushes the more unknown characters: Black Canary is the leader, Black Lightning has a substantial role, Vixen has a long-running subplot, Hawkgirl and Red Arrow are bumping uglies. On the other, the book still seems to long for the Grant Morrison days of jam all big characters into the book. Morrison made it work, though, and soon added lesser names like Plastic Man and Steel. JLA has seen two big villain team-ups thus far.

Perhaps it's because I fondly remember a League featuring two major characters - Batman and Martian Manhunter - and a load of second-stringers and nobodies. Even when the book was changed from comedy back to action by Dan Jurgens just before Doomsday, the League was made up of the same cast of lower talents. Over those 70+ issues, though, certain characters became core Leaguers - even if the DCU proper didn't think too highly of them. I think that's what the League could use now. Dip into the vast pool of DC heroes (if any survive the usual Crisis cullings) and get yourself a base of heroes that can come in and out of the scene. Rotate your leader and have them put out a call, with who knows showing up. I would like to see something like that, with the lesser heroes actually having a challenge, rather than seeing what's going on now.

One more shot at DC, then I'll go back to X-Men

2008-06-20T07:06:00.006-04:00

Spotted this over at Every Day is Like Wednesday which sums up my thoughts on DC's weekly-book crossover to mega-event shenanigans.

"You might remember that particular creative team from Gotham Underground, the series that tied-in to Salvation Run, which was a tie-in to Countdown, which was a prequel to Final Crisis, although the writer of Final Crisis recently disavowed it as such."

Exactly.

Marvel shipping schedule set to pound the crap out of reader, pocketbook

2008-06-18T10:52:00.003-04:00

Today's shipping list is a little light for me - DC's Justice League of America alongside Marvel's Ultimate X-Men and X-Factor. A pretty calm week and looking at next week, I found I will need the rest up.

DC remains calm - only Teen Titans will be coming out. Marvel, on the other hand, has Fantastic Four, Immortal Iron Fist, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates 3, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: First Class, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Legacy, and Young Avengers Presents. That's 11 Marvel books (and I'm still deciding whether I want to get Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers - I'll probably wait and see if they do something like they did for Civil War).

Perhaps you think I simply had an unlucky week, but look at it like this: both Avengers books are coming out on the same week. One would assume that you would have them coming out two weeks aside from each other so you get an Avengers book every other week, but apparently that is not in the cards.

Also, there are five X-Men books coming out this week (I don't read Wolverine: Origins). By my count, the whole X-Men line consists of 13 titles (if you include Astonishing X-Men which rarely comes out and New Exiles which really isn't an X-Men book). Both of the main X-Men titles (Uncanny and Legacy) are coming out on the same day, as are two of the three Wolverine titles. Keep in mind that three are coming out today, and you have eight titles - three short of the consistent titles in the line - are out in two weeks. There's no reason to bunch up so many titles at once.

I don't often defend DC, but I'll give them this: with some exceptions here and there, they get their books out consistently on schedule. Certain titles are first week, second week and so on and they usually remain there month after month. Marvel has more of a "put them out whenever" schedule, so it's always a crap shoot whether a title you're looking for shows up on the schedule or not.

But once again I feel the need to move past bitching and defend my point. How would I fix the X-Men scheduling system? Let's take a look:

There are 13 titles on the X-Men line: Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, Young X-Men, and X-Factor make up the main storyline titles. X-Force and New Exiles are in their own little worlds which don't get mentioned too often in the main titles. Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, and Cable are solo books based on X-Men characters. X-Men: First Class, Wolverine: First Class, and Ultimate X-Men are not in main continuity, and Astonishing X-Men is kind of an addendum title that is the award-winner when it feels like coming out. And in case you were wondering, I do not consider Captain Britain & MI-13 to be an X-Men book. It's almost a Marvel Knights title.

Considering these books to all be monthly in a four-week standard month, I'd place the four main books in separate weeks, with Uncanny and Legacy two weeks apart from one another. This schedule was followed during Endangered Species and Messiah CompleX and I greatly enjoyed the line's consistency. So you have the following:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men
Week 2: Young X-Men
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy
Week 4: X-Factor

Since weeks 2 and 4 are a little lighter, more for the dedicated X-Men reader, I'd toss the spin-off team books there to thicken them up a bit:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force

Tossing in the side solo books, I would want to keep the two Wolverine titles separate from one another, as to keep the density of the character down, yet I still run into the problem of putting two out in one week, as Wolverine is also in both Uncanny and X-Force. But alas, such cannot be helped. Cable I toss onto week 3, as I think weeks two and four have enough blood and angst with Young X-Men and X-Force:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force

Three more titles to go to even out the weeks at three X-Books a piece, we'll try to balance the titles. X-Men: First Class and Ultimate can go into weeks 2 and 4 to give each week an X-Men team book, and Wolverine: First Class will finish the stack:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles, Ultimate X-Men
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men: First Class

But I've made a mistake. On week 1, I've put two Wolverine books. This is an easy fix, as First Class is an out-of-continuity book, I'll simply switch it with the almost non-X-book, New Exiles for my final shipping pile:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins, New Exiles
Week 2: Young X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Wolverine: First Class
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men: First Class

So where do you put Astonishing on the event that it actually does come out? I left week 3 as the only week that does not have two team-books for just that purpose, and it is two weeks away from the other main X-Men team book, Uncanny.

So there you have it - a balanced X-Men schedule. On months with a fifth week, you can fill the gap with annuals or the dreaded needless one-shot issues. How would you balance your favorite comic-family schedule?

May's Sales Estimates

2008-06-17T20:38:00.002-04:00

I was going to write another article on DC, and how they added Carlos Pacheco to Final Crisis to assist JG Jones with art chores, and how it has not been a good couple of weeks for DC, but I decided against it. Instead, I am gonna comment on the Diamond sales estimates. Fun.

I like the estimates posted on CBR more so than the one posted on Newsarama. CBR has actual number of units, number of units the last issues sold, percentage change, and weeks late. Before discussing these, it should be noted that these are what Diamond sold to the comic shops. There is no way to tell what was actually bought from the stores, as not everyone uses a point-of-sale inventory system.

It is not surprising that Secret Invasion #2 outsold Final Crisis #1; 200,344 to 159,036. While both of these numbers seem high, neither of them is close to Secret Invasion #1, which sold over 267,000 copies. For comparison, Civil War #1 sold 260,700 copies with #2 only dropping to 253, 900 copies. Infinite Crisis #1 sold 249,265 copies. With the inevitable decrease in sales that most series experience, the lower starting point for Final Crisis does not look good.

Events have been good some of both companies ongoing titles. New and Mighty Avengers maintained an increase in sales with their Secret Invasion tie-ins. Both issues of Batman released in May as the first two parts of the RIP storyline saw a dramatic increase in sales. Justice League also saw an increase with its "Sightings" tag. Invincible Iron Man had a good debut, but issue 2 will bring about a better view of how this book is doing.

Personally, it disturbs me how poorly Nightwing and Robin are selling. Both are in the 30,000 area. Fortunately, there are ongoing titles selling worse, but they are below Supergirl. For comparison, Catwoman, selling 19,000 copies has been canceled. Some titles below that sales mark include: Checkmate, X-men First Class, Shadowpact, Spirit, Marvel Comics Present. Not saying these books are in danger, but it is something to keep an eye on.

As If I Needed It, Another Reason to Hate Countdown

2008-06-17T19:01:00.007-04:00

Recently I discovered an interview with Grant Morrison over at Newsarama. He discussed his plans for Final Crisis and the DCU and even addressed some of the complaints that have surfaced about Final Crisis #1 not jiving with Countdown or the Death of the New Gods mini series. You can read the whole thing for yourself but here are a few of the bits I found interesting...

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started. There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage...so when Countdown was originally being discussed, it was just a case of me saying ‘Here’s issue 1 of Final Crisis and a rough breakdown of the following six issues. As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins, we‘ll be fine.’ Obviously, I would have preferred it if the New Gods hadn’t been spotlighted at all, let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I don’t run DC and don’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed...J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. "

So Countdown and its ever abundant spin off mini-series and one shots were conceived and written after the die had already been cast for Final Crisis? Really? And still no one bothered to make sure everyone was on the same page? No one made sure Morrison knew about what was going on in the lead in to his series? No one made the other writers aware of what Morrison was doing? There were not just months, but years of lead in time to make sure everything went smoothly for what is unquestionably the most high profile book on DC's schedule this year and still something slips by the editorial staff? Are you kidding me?

Isn't Final Crisis supposed to be the series that solves DC's continuity mess and creates a sense of order and cohesion for the universe? Actually, isn't that what Infinite Crisis before it and Crisis on Infinite Earths before that were supposed to do? If you're writers and editors aren't on the ball to make sure everyone's working toward the same end then any sense of order and cohesion goes right out the window.

And another thing about the disconnect between Final Crisis and Countdown...

"GM: The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."

Call me crazy, but I interpret a major part of this interview as Morrison washing his hands of Countdown, saying he doesn't care what happened in it, and giving a big middle finger to all the fans who spent well over $150 to read Countdown as a lead in to his Final Crisis. So the responsibility falls on Morrison for only caring about what happened in his seven issues, and then on Dan DiDio and the editorial staff for giving Morrison free reign and not making sure Countdown and the rest of the DCU fell in line.

This is not the way to build an orderly, cohesive universe. This is the way to make the "C" in "DC" stand for clusterfuck.

Time to refine DC

2008-06-17T11:57:00.004-04:00

To say that DC hasn't been "new reader friendly" would not be an unfair statement. Since the countdown to Infinite Crisis started back in 2005, there have been few "jumping on points" for those not quite familiar with the DCU. One Year Later's novelty depended on you knowing what had been before and therefore familiar with the references to how things had changed over the missing year. Before and past that point has been crossover, crossover, crossover. DC's plan seems to be to get readers to buy as many obscure titles as possible. The punishment for not doing so? You miss an important chuck of any ongoing story.

But last week, I saw a vision of hope for DC in the form of Trinity. I don't read reviews outside of Paul O'Brien's X-Axis, so I have no idea what the fanboys are saying about it, but I really enjoyed the first issue. New readers might be able to as well - all you need to know is who Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are, that they are close friends, and that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are the secret identities of Superman and Batman. Everything else is explained. It's pretty easy to assume that anyone interested in a DC comic will know these simple matters.

This is what DC needs - a point to take a break and let the universe catch its breath. Give a couple months without the crossovers, the mega-events and the endless tie-in mini-series and let the characters redefine themselves. As it is now, it's hard to tell what's going on with whom, as the characters are jumping around event to event at every turn - and with two consecutive weekly mini-series wrapped up, there have been a lot of places to jump.

Marvel's starting to show signs of this as well by linking Civil War to Secret Invasion, but I'll hold my judgment until after the event ends. More refined, the X-Men have been going full-tilt since Endangered Species started, but with Uncanny #500, the book hits its defining issue and moves forward.

But DC needs to do something badly after Final Crisis that lets the DCU become more reader-friendly. It's the entire reason Crisis on Infinite Earths was done to begin with.

DC, What Did You Do This Time?

2008-06-16T21:33:00.003-04:00

Well, that was quick. It seems like only yesterday that I was excited about Chuck Dixon returning to write Robin. To add to my enthusiasm, Dixon would also be writing Batman and the Outsiders. Well, here we are 4 issues and a special into his run on Robin, and 7 issues into his run on Batman and the Outsiders, and Dixon is no longer with DC. Yes, the man who has had incredibly long runs on the other Bat-books that he has written is gone after a few months.

When the comment "I am no longer employed by DC," appeared on Dixon's message board, coming from Dixon, there was a lot of speculation as to why this happened. Most of the speculation focused on Didio and Morrison. It appears that some of that speculation is correct. Follow up comments by Dixon appear to indicate that it was something involving Didio.

I have defended DC many times before, but there is not a likely scenario that is defensible. Granted, we do not, and probably will not for a while, know exactly what happened. However, that is probably because what happened stemmed from a creative difference on the direction of either of the books Dixon was writing. When it was announced that Dixon would be returning, he said that he was excited about immediately being handed a major story to be a part of. I doubt the return of Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, was that big event. What that leads me to believe is that Didio either did not tell him everything that was going to happen in Batman RIP, or Didio just flat out lied. Adding to speculation that this has something to do with Batman RIP is the lack of details emerging from either side. To say that "Chuck Dixon was not happy that Tim becomes Batman, and Damien becomes Robin," would spoil the story. (Not saying that is going to happen, but that is a popular theory.)

Regardless of the specifics, this does not look good on Didio. Batman RIP is not a storyline that just recently came up, and they decided to immediately run with. It has been in the works for quite some time. Long enough that how things would end should have been known by all involved. Once it is understood what is expected of everyone, that is how things should proceed. Whether Didio was not honest with Dixon on how Robin would be after RIP, or if he allowed things to change after everything was agreed upon shows a complete lack of editorial leadership. It is Didio's job to keep everything straight in DC, and that does include sticking with the plan. When in charge of a large universe of characters, spanning multiple books, there needs to be a clearly defined direction. If that means telling a writer that he cannot change things, and needs to stick to the original plan, then so be it.

In conclusion, this may be completely wrong and off-base. If it is, the I will apologize on here. However, I doubt I will ever need to do that.

Marvel decides there aren't enough books starring Wolverine

2008-06-16T14:21:00.003-04:00

There was a time when Wolverine could only be found in the pages of Uncanny X-Men. I know it's shocking. Don't be embarassed if you need to catch your breath. In the mid-80s, it was decided that the superstar X-Man could probably sustain adventures of his own, and thus Wolverine was launched (after a successful mini-series). Alright, that's fine. A lot of team players have solo books (Iron Man and Captain America, for example).

But now, two decades later, Marvel has taken the pint-sized psychopath's popularity and gone positively bat-shit crazy. Besides his role in the pages of Uncanny, he also is leading the black-ops strikeforce team in X-Force, has stayed with the unregistered team of New Avengers, has three books of his own (Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class), only one of which really telling an ongoing story, and has recently been the subject of an ungodly surge of one-shot stories and mini-series. Logan wrapped up last month, Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales came out a week later, Wolverine: Dangerous Games kicked off June, and last week's X-Force: Ain't No Dog's main story was - you guessed it - a Wolverine story.

August will feature Wolverine: Killing Made Simple that brings back (by no one's demand) Nanny and the Orphan Maker and September has Wolverine: Roar and Wolverine: Saudade. To add with that, September's issue of Wolverine: Origins kicks off a four issue crossover with X-Men: Legacy!

I don't know what type of fan is so into Wolverine they're willing to shill out their hard-earned dollars to get all of this drivel (in fairness, not all of it is) but they need to knock it off. Perhaps if sales tank enough on these things, Wolverine can get back down to a manageable level. But I can bitch about it all day long. How would I fix it?

First, stop the one-shots and the mini-series. Wolverine is appearing in at least six different ongoing titles a month, complete with two dedicated specifically to him in current continuity. There should not be anything that can be brought out in a one-shot or mini that can't be handled in one or more of those titles. And if you actually read the issues in question, you'll see that they're actually isn't anything brought out. They're simply basic "milk-the-franchise" stories.

Second, cancel one of the current continuity books. While Wolverine: Origins (launched right after Wolverine discovered his entire past in House of M) features an ongoing plot dealing with the inner workings of the character, Wolverine is a book of rotating writers and artists whose stories really don't match up together or with any other title for that matter, except for occasionally Origins. So get rid of Origins while moving the stories and creative team over to Wolverine. Focus, people. Focus.

Third, refine Wolverine's presence in the Marvel Universe. It's a running joke that he's everywhere at once, and that shouldn't be. Put him on the X-Men and keep him there. Yank him from the Avengers as they have their own massive list of characters that can fill the void. X-Force is a little trickier, as his presence is quite important, but since the characters involved don't really fit and the concept goes against 40+ years of continuity, why not just scrap the whole book? I like that idea.

So what are we left with? Wolverine with solo adventures in Wolverine and team excursions in Uncanny X-Men and fun, nostalgic, out-of-continuity trips in Wolverine: First Class. With such a refined area, now you can reintroduce the one-shots but only few and far between! Even guest spots in New or Mighty Avengers won't be too much of a problem. But with the saturation down, these books might actually receive the bump that Wolverine's appearance should bring if they weren't so plentiful.

Cheap plug

2008-05-31T22:36:00.002-04:00

All three of us love blogging about comics, but we each have other projects we work on individually.

J.R. covers sports over at One Fan's Opinion - but be warned, he's a Cincinnati fan.

Casey has a 'whatever tickles the fancy' style blog where he goes on about anything at World's Blankiest Blank.

And finally, I deal with the world of current events and politics at (Beyond the Nation).

That is all.

Gladiator Meets Hulk

2008-05-29T09:51:00.003-04:00

This is what you get when a cross-promotion reaches a Presidential level of awesomeness. As found on CBR, the show American Gladiators on June 9 will be having a "Hulk" themed show, to promote the release of the movie The Incredible Hulk. Not only will the lights be green, and a showing of a new clip from the movie, an appearence by Lou Ferrigno, but also, a new gladiator will be making his debut.

Breathe something into the Sentry, please

2008-05-25T23:11:00.002-04:00

If you're not an Avengers reader, you may not be familiar with the Sentry. The idea came as a gag from Marvel with some help from Wizard introducing him as a long-lost Stan Lee creation. With the hoax revealed, a mini-series was launched and the Sentry was brought into the mainstream Marvel Universe (I hate the term 616) at the beginning of New Avengers.

The basic gist is that he's basically Marvel's Superman, except he's bat-shit crazy.

At first it was interesting, but since his defining story in which it was revealed why no one remembered him, he's become quite stale. His craziness keeps him out of action for most of a story and then he shows up at the end to handle things. If you'll forgive the reference, it's kind of like watching a storyline in Dragonball Z - you just wait around until Goku eventually shows up and wins.

Until, that is, I read this week's Mighty Avengers #14. I had thought that the Skrulls had simply pulled the obligatory 'get Sentry out of the fight so he doesn't win in four seconds' move in Secret Invasion #2, but it's becoming an interesting story to further the full aspect of the character. I'm not going to spoil what happened, but if you're familiar with the Sentry and his nemesis the Void, you might just be fascinated with these occurrences.

The First Avenger: Captain America

2008-05-22T22:22:00.002-04:00

"Captain America to be set during WWII."

Well, it was confirmed that the Captain America movie will be set during WWII. To me this makes sense. The point of these introductory/origin movies is to establish how the character became who they are. I feel to not put Captain America in WWII would be a great disservice to the character and the fans. Undoubtedly there are going to be people that are unhappy with this, and will proclaim that this movie is going to suck, and be the downfall of Marvel Studios. Likewise, some will proclaim that this is going to be the greatest movie ever. I say, wait until you see the blasted movie to proclaim anything about it. That really goes for any movie that has not been released, but I'll save going into that soap box message.

Wait until the story's done, killer.

2008-05-22T10:19:00.004-04:00

SECRET INVASION #2 SPOILERS AHOY. You have been warned.

Secret Invasion's excitement is starting to fizzle on me. As the side Avengers books go on about Nick Fury's new team, and the backstory of the Skrull invasion force, the main story itself seems to be tossing as many possible characters into the mix as humanly possible to confuse readers and characters alike as to who may actually be a Skrull. This comes as a misfire to me, as the paranoia should be represented amongst the heroes themselves, not by putting them face-to-face with doppelgangers to force the issue. But beyond that, it also gives the opportunity for fans to see some of the deceased characters back - and give them the hope that maybe, just maybe, the likes of Phoenix and Captain America will be back amongst the living.

So when Mockingbird made a convincing argument as to her authenticity, fans got really excited, while comic cynics (i.e. - bloggers like me) bitched that the thing didn't fit in with the continuity of the character. I have two issues with this argument. First, this happened in issue #2 of an 8 issue mini-series. Why are they going on like this is set in stone? Let the story play out, then feel free to bitch about the ramifications. If this Mockingbird is the real deal and she makes it out of the story, then she's fair game. Until then, rein it in and try to enjoy the story.

Second, Mockingbird died in Avengers West Coast #100, which came out in 1993 (by cover date). There is no way that any of this could have been planned back then, so why is it so hard to swallow that things would have to be adjusted to fit? Of course Mockingbird didn't revert to a Skrull when she died. Secret Invasion was still over a decade away from being planned! No one complained about sticking the Illuminati back into Marvel continuity, so this hubub needs to quiet down...bub.

But really, there will be complainers about any story, so this is not surprising. I'll pass judgment if I feel the need when it wraps up. Hits and misses, if you will. However, I realize that I'm no one special - I just write them out because anyone who may be reading this obviously is somewhat interested in what I have to say about it. Marvel will keep doing what they do despite what I think, and unlike some people I've noticed, I'm cool with that.

King of Kings as God of Thunder?

2008-05-15T19:10:00.005-04:00

There's a rumor going around the many internets that Marvel is interested in WWE superstar Triple H to play the title role in the Thor movie (already scheduled for release on June 4 2010).

He certainly looks the part, and he's got a fair bit of experience swinging a hammer. But I don't know if he's got the acting chops to pull it off. Not to say that I don't think a wrestler can act, since that's pretty much what their job is. But Thor is a very involved character. The costumes, the godly presence, and most importantly: the dialect. I just can't see Triple H saying things like "verily", "forsooth", "I say thee nay!" and "the Odinson doth protest!". Then again, they could play down that aspect of the character the way they did in Ultimates.

But with casting Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man and Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, something tells me Marvel's leaning toward more serious actors to make more serious movies.

Now for something completely not serious, here's a music video made with clips from one of Marvel's earliest films, Captain America. (contains profanity)

Brand New Day, Same Old Idea

2008-05-11T10:39:00.005-04:00

This charming fellow is Anti-Venom, the new character set to debut in Amazing Spider-Man when writer Dan Slott returns to the book in August. If you remember what happened in Slott's first Amazing story, which just so happened to be the first "Brand New Day" story, then you'll remember the character Slott previously introduced, Mr. Negative. Here's what I wrote about Mr. Negative then:

"There’s a new villain named Mr. Negative. He has the power to…um…be the opposite color of what he should be…or something. He’s a low level crime boss who’s trying to take out the heads of the mob families in New York so that he can run the show. He has a bomb, some kids are in danger, Spidey saves the day. Mr. Negative escapes. The end. The whole thing seemed nothing more than a generic super hero adventure. And with someone as bad ass as The Hood running around trying to take control of New York’s criminal element, Mr. Negative seemed all the more pointless."

And since nothing's been done with the character since, I stand by that assessment.

And it seems once again that Dan Slott's introducing a new character that seems to have nothing new about it but an inverted color scheme. Anti-Venom's origin could be tied into that of Mr. Negative but since he wasn't that interesting of a character to begin with I'm not that thrilled. Come to think about it, I'm not that thrilled with most of the new characters since "Brand New Day". They just seem like rehashes of old Spider-Man characters, just with maybe a new wrinkle or two thrown in and some window dressing slapped on. For example...

Mr. Negative is a crime boss trying to take over all the organized crime in New York in the same vein as Big Man, Kingpin, Hammerhead, and Silvermane. The fact he's secretly Mr. Li, the nice guy Aunt May works for at the Feast Center, is just like how Big Man turned out to be Freddie Foswell, Peter's friend from the Bugle.

Dexter Bennett might as well be called J. Jonah Jameson Jr. He doesn't have it out for Spider-Man the way J.J. does, but he has the same loud mouthed, sensational, anything-to-sell-papers attitude.

Freak is reminiscent of the Lizard, Morbius, Vermin, and all the other "accidentally-changed-into-a-horrible-monster" villains Spidey's faced over the years. Freak even has Curt Connors tied up in his origin. The fact that when you kill him he comes back to life immune to whatever killed him is a nice touch, though.

Menace is the Green Goblin made over. We've even already had somebody impaled on a goblin gli...um, excuse me, menace glider. And if Menace doesn't turn out to be Harry Osborn, I'll owe you a Coke.

One could argue that there's nothing new in comics anymore and that everything is a rehash of something. But if they're going to market these Spider-Man stories as "Brand New Day" you think they'd have more than one brand new idea.

When you put it that way it sounds like a lot...

2008-05-10T18:03:00.000-04:00

While organizing my boxes today I became curious as to just how many comics I owned. I didn't feel like counting them all, so I counted what was in one box and took that as an average of what was in the other three. Count in the 247 comics waiting for a new box and that means my collection totals about 1500 books. I only started seriously collecting about four years ago. I haven't bought any hugely expensive back issues, so if you figure the average price I've spent on an issue is $3 then that means I'm spending over $1000 a year on comics. That averages out to about $90 a month. Considering the twenty one monthly titles (one of which comes out three times a month, another substantially less than monthly) and three mini-series I'm collecting now, that's about right. Nobody said collecting comics would be a cheap hobby.

And it starts

2008-05-06T07:28:00.003-04:00

Don't say I wasn't optimistic of the ability of Fantastic Four to stay on schedule. So sure, creators Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch weren't exactly reknowned for their ability to put out Ultimates in a timely matter, but this is Fantastic Four! One of Marvel's big books!

Okay, so I actually wasn't too optimistic - so when I saw that issue #557 has slipped a week, I chuckled a bit. Let's see how close of a schedule they can keep.

Other books I collect seem to be having some scheduling woes as well. Criminal has been pushed back from the end of April to the beginning of June (not its first slide), and I'm not even going to go into Giant Size Astonishing X-Men. It's still solicited for May 28th. Let's see if that happens.

What surprised me was that the Powers Encyclopedia seemed to have been pushed up a month, from July 5th to June 4th. Then I realized the July 5th date was 2007. Whoops.

A bit of filler, then

2008-05-05T10:29:00.004-04:00

Since I seem to be the only one writing in this thing and I have nothing particular to write on at the moment, I'll share this:

2008-04-29T08:48:00.002-04:00

We've moved past Messiah CompleX and into Divided We Stand - so let's take a look at the X-Books on my plate and see how they're doing.

Uncanny X-Men
Obviously in a phase that you could call "rebuilding" but actually just killing time before July's issue #500. But as far as bridging filler goes, the San Francisco story is very good fun. This apparently will set up the X-Men's new base of operations, so that's neat. The Wolverine/Colossus/Nightcrawler story builds on an oft-forgotten relationship between Storm's team during the Paul Smith/John Romita Jr. era of the 80s, and it's good to see the three working together. With Storm off being married and Kitty Pryde apparently out of the picture, these three are the last of this core group, and they make a good trio. This has been quality stuff.

X-Men: Legacy
I recall a book called Excalibur (vol. 2) that was focused on the relationship between Charles Xavier and Magneto as they tried to rebuild Genosha - and if memory serves correctly, it wasn't very good. Whether or not Mags stays in the book, the first issues of Legacy have been very good, with an interesting look into Xavier's past, and finally fleshing out one of the most overlooked characters in the X-Men, which is even stranger being that he's the CENTER of the whole thing. Those familiar with all these X-Events that are being flashed back to (such as myself) have to be loving this.

Astonishing X-Men
No, I'm just kidding. This book's last Whedon/Cassaday issue hasn't come out yet. That's next month.

X-Factor
Here's a book whose entire premise was torn asunder through House of M and Messiah CompleX. While some titles would flail about desperately seeking direction, that has become the point of X-Factor and its being done very well. You can't help but love all the members of this team, and desperately miss (as they do) Layla Miller. Solicitations say the book's getting Longshot and Darwin on its cast, and I have to say I'm excited.

X-Force
Do I really need to go on another rant about X-Force? It has a cast with claws and knives so they can stab people. Stab, stab, stabby, stabby, stab. Blood, death, good for them. There is apparently a move at bringing back some older baddies (Bastion, Magus) but I have ceased caring. The book's apparently a hit, though. Bah - should have read The Order instead.

Young X-Men
After only one issue, I really want to see where they're going with this one. It's obvious to me that the last-page setup is not what it seems, so we'll just have to see. I'll give an update on this one next week after issue #2 comes out.

So where does that leave us? In pretty good shape, I'd say. Things are looking to get more focused when Uncanny hits 500 and Astonishing launches under Warren Ellis. It's a good time to be an X-Men fan, if you ask me.

(I don't read Cable, New Exiles, or either Wolverine book and the First Class titles don't really fit here, so they've all been skipped.)

Runaways/Young Avengers

2008-04-23T08:22:00.002-04:00

J.R. brought this interview to my attention, with writer Chris Yost talking about his plans for the upcoming Secret Invasion tie-in featuring the second crossover between Young Avengers and Runaways (the first happening in Civil War, which I have yet to read). When he sent me the link, he included the message "You could probably start a pool on who, and how many people die."

J.R. is well aware of my distaste of the constant deaths that defined Yost and Craig Kyle's run on New X-Men, as well as of how quickly I decided to drop X-Force. However, Young Avengers and Runaways are two franchises that Yost can't really do too much with. As the interview said, it was originally supposed to be a Runaways story and it eventually got the Young Avengers added to it. That means it's not going to be important. It's there if you like the characters, but nothing else is really going to matter in it.

So after giving it thought, I don't think anyone's going to be kicking off in it, and though I love the New Avengers, I'm a bit hesitant on getting the issue. After all, I still have a bit of the bitter taste that X-Men: Emperor Vulcan left in my mouth.

Unnecessary origins

2008-04-16T13:50:00.003-04:00

Don't know how I missed this one when May solicits came out two months ago, but came across this little nugget today:

X-MEN ORIGIN: COLOSSUS #1

COVER BY: TREVOR HAIRSINE
WRITER: CHRISTOPHER YOST CRAIG KYLE
PENCILS: TREVOR HAIRSINE
INKS:KRIS JUSTICE
COLORED BY: VAL STAPLES
LETTERED BY: TODD KLEIN
THE STORY: The origin of fan-favorite X-Man Colossus is finally revealed, brought to you by Chris Yost (New X-Men, Messiah Complex) and Trevor Hairsine (X-Men: Deadly Genesis). Deep in the wastes of Siberia, young Piotr Rasputin discovers his mutant abilities -- and becomes the newest target of the ruthless KGB! Guest-starring Professor Xavier. Rated T+ … $3.99

Okay, now correct me if I'm wrong here...but Colossus' origin was already told - back in this little-known issue called GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1. Very simple - farm boy living on farm, sister going to be run over by tractor, uses powers to stop tractor, recruited into X-Men. It's a decently simple origin for a decently simple character. That was one of Colossus' strengths - he didn't have some convoluted origin that lost sight of the original simpleness of a farmboy and how he saw the outside world in his first days as an X-Man. This origin series reeks of missing the original point. There is no reason for this whatsoever, save screwing with a perfectly fine origin in the pursuit of a buck.

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but usually when characters are given 'tweaks' to their origins, it very rarely works out in the end. Psylocke's transformation to ninja-mode was originally simply a transformation - until somebody decided it would be a good idea to bring back the original body as a separate being and confusion reigned. Nightcrawler was abandoned as a child because of his appearance and became a circus performer who was persecuted for his appearance - until somebody thought it would be a good idea to have him be the son of (maybe) the Devil and be brothers of several teleporters in one of the biggest plot holes in X-Men mythos. Outside of the X-Men? Need I mention Hawkman?

I can think of two instances (there are probably more) where inserting new bits into the origin story worked well - one was Cyclops (as it answered the question as to how he got the ruby quartz glasses in his orphanage) and Wolverine (who never really had a definite origin) but both of those worked out of necessity. Colossus doesn't need an origin to be "finally revealed!" No one asked for it. It's not necessary.

Ugh, I say.

Marvel puts out quality debut issue solely to spite blog writer

2008-04-12T14:32:00.003-04:00

Back in December, I lambasted the concept of Wolverine: First Class.

Casey bought the first issue, and lo and behold, I liked it. I liked it a lot.

So while I still am not a big fan of the concept, I gladly admit that it's a quality read (as of the first issue) and I plan on picking it up. I apologize for jumping to the conclusions that I did.

Dammit.

The Hundreds of Uncanny X-Men

2008-04-08T20:07:00.007-04:00

Uncanny X-Men #500 is due out this July and with the recent announcement over on Comic Book Resources of the issue's Alex Ross cover, buzz is starting to build. I've been reading Uncanny for a long time, and each of the 'hundred' issues stick out for me. So in this, the 100th post on Comicdom Wrecks!, let's take a look at the last four 'hundreds' and see where Marvel's merry mutants have been.

Uncanny X-Men #100
Cover Date: August, 1976
Creative Team: Chris Claremont (writer), Dave Cockrum (artist)
Team Lineup: Banshee, Colossus, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine
What Went Down: Anti-mutant horror Steven Lang has captured the X-Men on his space station and forced the new team to battle android replicas of the original X-Men, seemingly at Professor X's behest. The good guys win, everyone is saved and they all board a shuttle to get back to Earth. Only problem is that a radiation field is in their way, so Marvel Girl volunteers to pilot the shuttle, aware that she probably won't survive the trip. Fortunately there's a cosmic force watching her...
Significance: The immediate aftermath of this issue created an X-Phenomenon. Perhaps you've heard of the Phoenix? This is what caused it. So there.
In Retrospect: Though Havok and Polaris attacked them a few issues before, this is really Chris Claremont's first true X-Men vs. X-Men story. The act would be repeated over the next three decades approximately 780 times. This issue still retains the tension it had then, and it is still a quality read 32 years later.

Uncanny X-Men #200
Cover Date: December, 1985
Creative Team: Chris Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils)
Team Lineup: Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Phoenix (Rachel Summers), Rogue, Shadowcat, Storm, Wolverine
What Went Down: A reformed Magneto is put on trial by an international court as terrorists claiming to be the X-Men strike throughout the court's location of Paris, demanding his release. The group, led by Fenris attack the court, actually seeking Magneto slain. Magneto defends the public's safety, though Professor X falls, his already injured body now dying. Xavier is teleported away to be healed aboard the Starjammer, but not before making Magneto swear to take over his role as headmaster of the school.
Significance: This was a major turning point for the X-Men. Professor X would remain out of the book for 75 issues and the X-Men would face much darker times. Cyclops would leave next issue and the Mutant Massacre was not far off.
In Retrospect: This was a very good issue, though one would have to know the back story of Magneto, Professor X and Baron Von Strucker to understand Fenris' motives. Magneto's redemption was a crucial part of the character moving past his raving lunatic Silver Age days, and this was the pay off. Though he eventually went back to villainy...sort of...this rounded out the character, and its effects are still seen today.

Uncanny X-Men #300
Cover Date: May, 1993
Creative Team: Scott Lobdell (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Brandon Peterson (pencils, epilogue)
Team Lineup: Archangel, Bishop, Colossus, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine
What Went Down: Having been attacked by the Acolytes numerous times, the Gold Team (accompanied by Wolverine, Cyclops and Nightcrawler) finally strike back with the intention of rescuing the captive Moira MacTaggert. With the help of the identity-confused Neophyte, the X-Men take down Fabian Cortez and scatter the Acolytes.
Significance: This issue finished the story establishing the newer group of Acolytes and directly led to the return of Magneto in the Fatal Attractions story. Though most of them were personality-lacking drones, some faces (Unuscione, Voght) stood out over time. This issue also reveals that Illyana Rasputin will die of her illness (the Legacy Virus). She actually does two issues later.
In Retrospect: It's got a shiny cover, but this issue is largely forgettable in favor of the much more important Fatal Attractions four issues later. It was nice seeing Nightcrawler back with the team at the time, and the epilogue hints that Magneto is alive, which was exciting. Overall, though, it's good for the nostalgia, and neat that the same art team from #200 made it back for this one.

Uncanny X-Men #400
Cover Date: January, 2002
Creative Team: Joe Casey (writer), Cully Hammer, Ashley Wood, Eddie Campbell, Javier Pulido, Sean Phillips, Matt Smith (artists)
Team Lineup: Archangel, Chamber, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Stacy X, Wolverine
What Went Down: The X-Men strike at the Church of Humanity. Stacy X is captured and stalls by telling her origin, which is almost completely made-up (like her being one of the original X-Men). The X-Men save her, beat the bad guys and Nightcrawler realizes that there's something he should know, but for some reason doesn't.
Significance: None, really. The Church of Humanity story was eventually wrapped up by Chuck Austen in one of the worst stories ever (disintegrating communion wafers, anyone?) and then this, like most other Uncanny stories of the time, were quietly forgotten.
In Retrospect: I didn't really like this story when I read it in 2003, and in going back, I don't really like it now. It was a weak period for the book (no offense against Joe Casey, who I usually like) and six separate artists throughout really cut into the pacing. It's good for completists, but not much else.

#500 goes on sale in July!

I just wrote a new column for Mutatis Mutandis! Check out the site when you get a chance!

Jacob returns to Mutatis Mutandis

2008-04-05T11:58:00.002-04:00

Have you ever been to Mutatis Mutandis? It's one of the greatest X-Men sites out there. It's been mentioned by an editor in the letter pages of Uncanny X-Men and it's database on character information helped get me back into the X-World back in 2003.

I was for a long time a reviewer (until the reviews became too time consuming for me), a columnist and a random jobs doer until I slowed down a bit to work on this thing (amongst other things). Well, I've returned to my neglected Column With No Name with an entry on mega event promises.

You should go check it out, and while you're there, check out the rest of the site.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds announced

2008-04-03T22:31:00.007-04:00

Geoff Johns 3 Legion story has been something that he's been talking about vaguely for quite a while. Since the current Action Comics Legion story was first being talked about. I had always just assumed that it would be an Action Comics story, but that assumption was destroyed yesterday when Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds was announced.

I can hear the groans from here. Why is DC having one mini-series tie-in to another? Honestly, that is just the way things are. A company has an event, there are going to be extra books that tie-in to it. This is not something unique to DC. If it was, then you would not have had Civil War: Frontline, World War Hulk: X-Men, etc. Tie-ins are not necessarily a bad thing, so long as they remain only tie-ins. It is when a tie-in becomes an essential part of the story that there is trouble.

A tie-in should be supplemental to the main st experience, Marvel has done a decent job with this. DC, not so much. In the lead up to Infinite Crisis, DC had 4 mini-series going on. ory. From myOnce Infinite Crisis started, each of the minis had one special. These specials turned out to be necessary parts to fully understand Infinite Crisis, especially the Villains United special. DC appeared to have learned their lesson with the 52 tie-in, World War 3. While this event was a tie-in, and represented in 52, you did not need to read one in order to read the other. Unfortunately, DC showed they had not learned anything with the Countdown family of titles. But that is for another entry.

Too make a long story short, (too late) there is a way to write a successful tie-in, even if it is going to be a big event on its own. From interviews that I have read with Grant Morrison about Final Crisis, and Geoff Johns about Legion of 3 Worlds, it seems that they understand how to be successful. Grant has said that you do not need to read anything else, to understand Final Crisis. Geoff has said that while there is a launching point within Final Crisis, you do not need to read it to read his Legion story, and vice versa. So long as they stick to this plan, then things should go well.

Young X-Men, a retrospective

2008-04-01T11:45:00.004-04:00

Come along, Sherman, we're taking the Wayback Machine to learn about some history in honor of this week's launch of Young X-Men.

What, you don't get that reference? Way to make me feel old.

The "next generation of X-Men" has been (more often than not) a staple of the X-Franchise since Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod introduced the New Mutants in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 back in 1982. That team consisted of Cannonball, Mirage, Karma, Sunspot and Wolfsbane - who, along with other well-known members Magik, Cypher, Warlock and Magma - are the usual guide to the genre. If a "young team" debuts, usually it will at some point reference this group - and if the solicitations are a guide, Young X-Men will be no different.

The X-Men was launched as five teenagers learning at a school for mutants, though as produced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (no offense intended) they hardly acted like students or even teenagers, save for needing Professor X to bail them out of situations. It wasn't long before the group "graduated" and later writers used them specifically as a super-hero team. When Len Wein and Dave Cockrum relaunched the team in 1975, the new X-Men were all adults, several of them heroes in their own right. Chris Claremont's run focused on the team's interactions with one another rather than learning in the school environment.

So it was no real surprise when the second book was launched, in part carried by the mass popularity of Uncanny X-Men. But the New Mutants weren't just different faces going through the motions - the stories were more light hearted (in some cases) and the characters were likable in their own respect - not simply because they wore an X on their belts.

But through the late 80s and into the start of the 90s, the New Mutants got swept up by the grittier times, signalled by creator Rob Liefeld's introduction of Cable to the book. Before long, most of the core cast was gone (save for Cannonball and latecomer Boom Boom) and in their places were a team of the era - X-Force. With that, the younger class book was gone, though X-Force would never quite be able to shake that label.

Three years later, in 1994, the Phalanx Covenant kicked off leading directly to the launching of Generation X - the next "next generation of X-Men". This title moved the official Xavier school out of the X-Mansion to Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy, formerly the school of her Hellions (arch-nemeses of the original New Mutants). The title took X-Men mainstays Jubilee, Banshee and the no-longer-evil Emma Frost and added a sprinkle of new characters such as Skin, M, Chamber, Synch and Husk (sister of Cannonball) as well as some others. The title never really caught on and changed its identity several times as it floundered in the X-World before being quietly put down just before Grant Morrison started his heralded New X-Men run.

With the end of Generation X, Morrison moved the proper school back to Professor Xavier's mansion and made the mutant student body substantially larger than had ever been attempted in an X-Men title (Generation X had opened the school to human students at one point). With this came an opportunity to focus on some of the students, so Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir launched New Mutants under Marvel's ill-fated Tsunami line. In this new title, the students learned from the faculty of X-Men characters - focused mainly on original New Mutant Mirage. However, the book seemed to be pushed awkwardly away from its original aim (Magma and Wolfsbane were originally hinted to be important members of the cast, but never really joined) and the book was retitled after 13 issues to New X-Men: Academy X.

It was here that DeFillipis and Weir hit their stride. In an effort to take the X-Men back into the superhero realm, New X-Men split the students into squads, each advised by a member of the faculty. The title focused on two teams - the New Mutants (Wind Dancer, Wallflower, Prodigy, Elixir, Surge and Icarus) and the Hellions (Hellion, Dust, Wither, Rockslide, Mercury and Tag) with background characters filling out a part of the student body. Like New Mutants, though, this book was more into the interactions of the characters rather than fighting bad guys. But that was fine. The book had a lot of strong characters, and when the Hellions got their own mini-series, it was a great read.

During Decimation in which the X-Line was shaken up, New X-Men was pulled from DeFillipis and Weir and given to the duo of Chris Yost and Craig Kyle. As evidenced by my thoughts on X-Force, these two are hit and miss with me. They took the happiness completely out of the book, and made it a sludge through pure misery. Five members of the two main teams were written out, with three of them getting killed. Almost the entire supporting cast was killed off in a single issue. The book literally became about the characters wondering when they were going to get killed. With that in mind, you can see why X-Force is a much better device for them. To their credit, I did like their characterization of some of these kids, and they made X-23 into an enjoyable character, which is something I never would have imagined when she was a personality-lacking wild child in Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men.

After Messiah CompleX, New X-Men stopped being solicited, with no explanation as to why the book was seemingly getting the axe. Like me, many fans greatly loved the characters (they seemed to have more of a following than the Generation X kids at the time) and wanted more of them. So we get a new issue #1 with Young X-Men and a title that, according to solicitations, looks to be a child army of mutants. I'm not quite sure about that, but I'll look into that on Friday after people have had a chance to look over the book.

To me, the younger team has not really worked too well lately. It's possible - it was none with New Mutants in the 80s - but no one has really managed to recapture the magic and hit the balance between teenage interaction and superhero stories. As of late, it's been specifically one or the other, and it doesn't look like Young X-Men will change this. But of course, in four years they'll revamp the theme and try again.

Going down the Skrull memory lane

2008-03-26T07:11:00.006-04:00

After all the build-up and the hype, Secret Invasion finally kicks off next week and the Marvel scene is ablaze with Skrull fever. The Skrulls, to me, have always been a "Let's invade and take over!" group to soundly be defeated by the heroes and be on their ways. Of course, I just recently (within the past five or so years) began reading Fantastic Four and Avengers, so I still have a ways through my Essential volume trudging before I get to some of the more classic Skrull stories. The 60s versions didn't exactly have me cowering in fear.

But I'm an X-Men fan, and one of the (mainly forgotten) stories that I hold near and dear to my heart - the story that was taking place when I first became a fan - is my favorite Skrull story to date, and it's really what I think about when I think Skrulls. The story was an effort by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee running briefly in Uncanny X-Men #273 and 274, before taking up all of 275 through 278.

The setup was classic Claremont. Back in the 160s of Uncanny, Deathbird has usurped the throne of the Shi'ar with the help of the Brood. In issue #200, Professor X had been taken aboard the Starjammer to heal his body, and was unable to return to Earth. Nothing had been done with either character since. With the to-be launched X-Men #1 approaching, I guess it was decided that Professor X needed to be back on Earth, so this quickly wrapped up both storylines in a somewhat unfulfilling manner, in the scope of the big picture. Lila Cheney teleports the X-Men to Deathbird for no real reason, they break free of her trap, beat her and the Imperial Guard up, and Lilandra's got her throne back. It took less than half an issue. But ignore that and follow the story afterwards.

At the party celebrating the victory, Psylocke gets attacked from her chambers and dragged off. Jubilee and Gambit stumble upon Professor X ordering Gladiator to rip Deathbird's wings off. When they attack, Jubilee gets caught and Gambit escapes. As the X-Men investigate, Wolverine cuts down Professor X, and is attacked by Psylocke and also taken prisoner. Now with just Storm, Banshee and Forge (with Gambit working in the shadows) the X-Men have to decide whether they can trust Deathbird and go against Lilandra, who has apparently been doing horrors to Shi'ar worlds under the control of Professor X, who may not be dead after all.

Turns out, Xavier (as well as the Starjammers) have been captured by War Skrulls, who have created a nexus that allows them to duplicate powers. The Psylocke that struck down Wolverine was a Skrull, as was the Professor X that was killed (who in turn was replaced by another Skrull). As Wolverine and Jubilee are copied, the remaining X-Men prepare to fight against their own (of course - it's a Claremont story) and the ending works out, everyone's happy and Professor X returns to Earth to wrap up the longtime Shadow King build up.

There were a lot of things I loved about this story. For one, it was the first story with an actual X-Men team since the Australian based group disbanded back in the 250s, and it was such a mish-mosh of characters (Storm, Wolverine, Banshee, Forge, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee), it was an interesting set of interactions between them - though they for some reason had chosen to wear matching uniforms for the first time since the late 60s.

But mainly it was just how bad-ass the Skrulls were. I had no clue what was going on until the big reveal at the end of 276, and by that point (long before, actually) I was intrigued. This group seemed like a viable threat that could in fact conquer a galaxy-spanning empire and do horrors in somebody else's name. Of course, the good guys would win - the good guys always win. But this one is a story I can repeatedly go back and read, happily, whenever I want a decent story.

And also 275 had what is still on my favorite covers list:

So while this may not be a story that goes down in many memory books, if Secret Invasion pulls off Skrulls like this one did (and as of right now, it's already made them a loooot cooler), I'll be happy. I just wish they'd drop the "I've been discovered, I have to attack like a savage! Grrrraaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!" bit.

Yeah, fat chance.

I Hate You, Too

2008-03-25T12:40:00.003-04:00

Remember last summer when you guys weren't reading The Irredeemable Ant-Man? Well, because you didn't it got canceled after twelve issues.

I hate you for that. Still.

J.R. hates you

2008-03-24T13:36:00.001-04:00

You should have bought The Circle and because you didn't, it looks like it's done at 5 issues.

J.R. is in mourning now. I hope you're happy.

It's time to kill it off, so to say.

2008-03-19T07:30:00.003-04:00

You may recall my rant after the first issue of the new X-Force came out. After expressing concerns for the first issue and the premise as a whole, I finished up with the line, "[O]nly one issue’s come out thus far. I’ll keep getting it to see where it goes ..."

Turns out I was lying. Two issues into X-Force and I'm getting out.

The more I look at it, the more I think that I stuck with Kyle and Yost through New X-Men for so long because I enjoyed the characters (created by Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir) and the premise. Yeah, it started off dark after M-Day - and for all sense and purpose, it should have - but surely the youth book would get lighter and happier like it used to be. Nope - instead we got death after death after death to the point where you really stopped caring anymore. In their first six issues, the writers' death count hit double digits. They didn't get through a single arc without at some point leaving a character dead/dying at the end of a cliffhanger. It was the drawing point of the book.

So now that the 'youth' aspect is gone, Kyle and Yost get to keep the 'death' part, and use less-than-appropriate characters to crank it up to 11. Three of the book's cast (thus far) of four have claws, the other has twin knives. They're good for stabbing. Stab, stab, stabby stab, stab. After two issues of stabbing and killing with a very weak plot basis (Cyclops is all for this against Emma Frost's wishes?) I've had enough. Turns out that if I don't enjoy a title enough, I will actually drop it. Hell, New Excalibur lasted four issues before I realized I wasn't going to keep paying for it.

To pull off an extreme-violence book, you need to back it up with well-done storytelling. Garth Ennis has been doing this forever with his Punisher series. Sure, there's a lot of gruesome violence, but it's a compelling read as well. X-Force lacks the latter. It's violence for violence sake - that's the premise of the title, and for me, that's rubbish - and finally I've decided to put my money where my mouth is - or more like back in my pocket and quit buying stuff I don't like.

So X-Force's spot will go to Captain Britain and MI: 13, which I am very interested in. After all, it can't be as bad as New Excalibur, right?

Spider-man Blue

2008-03-17T19:19:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading Spider-man: Blue for the first time today. I liked it. I came in without having heard any opinions on the book, and was able to enjoy it. It goes on the list of Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale works that I like. Sure, maybe not as much as The Long Halloween, but I do like the Spider-man that Loeb portrayed in this story.

For the record, I have not read a current Spider-man book in quite some time, but this is the characterization that I think of when I think of Spider-man. To me, Peter Parker/Spider-man is a character should always be on the verge of getting what he wants, but is never able attain and hold onto what he wants. That lovable loser type of character. A happy Spider-man is not interesting to me.

I will admit that the underlying story of Spider-man being stalked and hunted down by Kraven, only to end it in a short fight was a bit contrite. This was nothing more than plot device to setup the plot of Peter/Spider-man always getting pulled away from what he wants. Sure, Peter gets Gwen at the end, but we all know how the Gwen Stacy story ends. So, him getting her at then end of this story leaves a bittersweet feeling, and ends up strengthening that he can't have what he truly wanted.

Debut Issue

2008-02-28T17:54:00.006-05:00

Kick-Ass #1

When I walked into the comic shop this week I had no intention of picking up a new book, even one with as snazzy a title as Kick-Ass. (I actually got two new books, this one and Ed Brubaker's Criminal #1.) But it's action packed cover and bold title caught my eye. When I saw that it was written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., I thought I'd give it a shot. Millar wrote some of my favorite stories including Civil War, Ultimates 1 & 2, and the amazing "Enemy of the State" arc in Wolverine. Romita Jr. has been a Marvel mainstay for years and always done quality work.

Kick-Ass is an Icon book, which is Marvel's creator owned imprint. That means it doesn't take place in the Marvel universe. In fact, it happens in a world not unlike our own. Kick-Ass asks a question: With all the crazies in the world why has there never been anyone to put on a costume and fight crime? In this book, Dave Lizewski does just that.

What's so special about Dave Lizewski? Nothing at all. He's a high school student. He loves comic books. Other than that, he's a pretty nondescript guy, just sort of fading into the background of life. He decides to become a costumed hero not because he has any special ability or anyone to avenge, but just because he's bored. He spends a few weeks in the gym then buys a wet suit and a ski mask and heads out to fight crime. He has no combat training, no name, and no idea what he's getting himself into. Needless to say, it does not end well.

The main character doesn't seem particularly smart or likable, but he's the right kind of crazy to make you wonder what he's going to do next. And when the first issue ends with the hero bleeding to death in the middle of the street after being stabbed in the chest and hit by a car, you have to wonder what issue two will bring. I'll stick around for that, at least.

Five points to think about

2008-02-27T12:20:00.000-05:00

It was so much fun last week - let's do it again!

Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales is the worst title I've heard in quite some time.
I find it amusing how everyone is focusing on Trinity and pretty much overlooking Final Crisis.
Wouldn't it be crazy if Luke Cage was a Skrull?
Locke and Key #1 was apparently so good that the TV and movie rights have already been picked up.
What ever happened to Chuck Austen? He was our (X-Fans) One More Day.

Okay, so I broke my word about not talking about it. I couldn't resist.

Enough already!

2008-02-27T10:22:00.000-05:00

I did not post anything on One More Day while Casey's countdown was going on out of respect for my friend and co-author. Eventually, it kind of faded on me until I saw a posting on Comics Should be Good saying that nothing done in Brand New Day couldn't have been done with a married Peter Parker. No real backup - just stating the point.

To this I say ENOUGH ALREADY!

We get it - you didn't like One More Day. Fantastic. Move on. The stories are going forward, why the hell can't you? The repeated belly-aching about this story has gone on way past the point where it has any right to. It's like driving from Point A to Point B using Road C instead of Road D, even though Road D is a lot prettier. Are you going to moan about it for months past the trip? No! You got to Point B. Well done.

I have not heard anyone complain that Spider-Man needs to go back to organic web shooters, unmasked, and on the run from the government. The general consensus is that, despite how he got there, Peter is in a more comfortable place for readers now. The trip has ended. We've reached the destination. We aren't going back and taking another route now. LET. IT. GO.

And that's it. I've said my piece, and now I will heed my own advice and wash my hands of this debate.

Why I Don't Like Reviews

2008-02-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, and everyone has the freedom to express their opinion. The Interweb has given anyone with a computer and internet connection, like myself, the ability to get that opinion out there. I do not have a problem with this. What does annoy me is when people take their opinions too seriously, and consider it the definitive judgment on a book.

When reading a review on popular websites such as Newsarama, or Comic Book Resources, I often find that I disagree with what the reviewer thinks. The words "good" and "bad" should not be used, unless preceded by "I think." One person does not have the authority to stamp something as good or bad. It takes a collective consensus to pass this judgment. Unfortunately, a few voices that are louder than others, are shaping this consensus with their reviews.

There are times when it seems like they do not like any comics they read. Which makes me ask, why are you reading comics? Others only like indie comics, and think that anything produced by DC or Marvel is crap. While the reviewers think what they like is good, others may not. Everyone's tastes in comics are different, and this should be remembered. If you do not like something, or it just does not work for you, say so. But do not confuse like and dislike with good and bad. Remember, you are just one reader out of hundreds and thousands.

I hate you

2008-02-23T23:40:00.001-05:00

You should have bought The Order and because you didn't, it's getting cancelled with issue #10.

Leave me alone. I'm not talking to you.

Reviewing "Brand New Day"

2008-02-22T22:02:00.000-05:00

Despite all the whining and bitching about “One More Day”, many Spidey fans will still be reading the Wall Crawler’s adventures in Amazing Spider-Man. I count myself among them. What can I say? We’re junkies. While nothing is going to make “One More Day” any better the best us Spider-Fans can hope for is that the top notch new creative teams on Amazing Spider-Man turn out some good stories.

The first attempt is Amazing Spider-Man #546 - 548 written by Dan Slott and penciled by Steve McNiven. I remember reading an issue of Slott’s Avengers: The Initiative that guest starred Spider-Man and thinking “I’d love to see this guy write a Spider-Man book.” So, despite the circumstances, I was looking forward to these issues. Steve McNiven’s artwork was fantastic, but I’ve yet to see anything of his I didn’t like. I was disappointed to find out he won’t be returning for Slott’s next run on the book.

This is “Brand New Day” which means a whole new status quo for Spider-Man and the first issue establishes it with all the subtlety of a punch in the face. Very first page, Peter is seen making out with a random club girl. In case you missed it, Spidey’s single now, ladies! He’s also broke, practically unemployed, hanging out with his rich friend Harry Osbourne, and living with his elderly Aunt May in Queens. He’s also an unlicensed super hero, which makes him wanted by the government. Ol’ Sad Sack Parker is once again the lovable loser, only this time it’s slightly less lovable.

It seems Spider-Man’s been off the radar for a few months now.(How this fits in with the timeline of the rest of the Marvel U, I’d like to see.) J. Jonah Jameson has been using the Daily Bugle to tout how much safer the city is without that wall crawling menace but the truth is that the paper’s sales have tanked without Peter Parker’s pictures of Spider-Man. So much so that shareholders are dumping off their stock and it’s being bought up by Dexter Bennett, an idle billionaire who wants to own a newspaper and run it his own way. In order to hold onto every share he can, Jameson has stopped paying the Bugle’s staffers yet they continue working as a show of solidarity. Turns out Jonah still owes Peter for some old Spidey photos and Peter isn’t willing to wait. He wants his moneys and he wants them now. When Jonah calls Peter ungrateful for all he’s done for him, Peter fires back that it’s Jonah who’s the ingrate and that the current situation proves that it was his photos of Spider-Man that kept the Bugle in business so long. This makes Jameson so mad that he has a heart attack. Seriously. Peter feels so guilty that he decides to go out in costume and get some new Spider-Man pictures to save the old man’s business and life. But Jameson’s wife decides to go ahead and sell the paper to Dexter Bennett anyway, so it’s all for naught.

There’s a new villain named Mr. Negative. He has the power to…um…be the opposite color of what he should be…or something. He’s a low level crime boss who’s trying to take out the heads of the mob families in New York so that he can run the show. He has a bomb, some kids are in danger, Spidey saves the day. Mr. Negative escapes. The end. The whole thing seemed nothing more than a generic super hero adventure. And with someone as bad ass as The Hood running around trying to take control of New York’s criminal element, Mr. Negative seemed all the more pointless.

The new angle on Amazing Spider-Man seems to be to be reminiscent of the book during the 60s. Down on his luck Peter Parker, money troubles, lady troubles, a large supporting cast and monthly encounters with a new super villain who wants to put kittens in a wood chipper or something. I think that’s what Quesada and company were going for, to be honest. Nevermind all the growing the character has done over the last forty years. That being said, it’s an enjoyable read and a decent story. But in this case, decent’s not good enough. Coming off of the universally panned “One More Day”, the first three issues of “Brand New Day” needed to be a home run. It needed to not only establish the new status quo for Spider-Man but tell an excellent story in the process. Accomplishing that would outshine the grim specter of “One More Day” and genuinely make people forget about the old and embrace the new. As it is, Dan Slott’s story is only slightly above average. And it raises even more questions about continuity that only serve to remind fans of the ghastly story that came before it.

They say when you get your heart broken, all it takes is one great date with someone new to make you forget all about it. Aside from figuring out how Spider-Man works in the rest of the Marvel Universe, I believe us Spider-fans are just one great story away from putting “One More Day” behind us. This, unfortunately, is not it.

Wolverine and the X-Men

2008-02-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

For a while now, talk has been going on about a new X-Men animated series called Wolverine and the X-Men. While the title didn't impress me, I liked the preview images that had the characters in their more recent costumes, rather than original designs seen in X-Men: Evolution.

I hadn't heard anything about the series for some time, until I stumbled across the news on Newsarama that Marvel is getting sued by the band Foo Fighters for rather stupidly using their music in the show's trailer without permission. Of course, my reaction was "There's a trailer? Sweet!" So even though YouTube had apparently pulled the video, someone had reposted it, and I got a look at this series - and it looks pretty good.

The theme seems to be following the storyline of X-Men: Evolution as the animation style and characterization seems to have the same feel. Of course, this is just supposition on my part, but where the characters are at this point, and what characters are being used makes it seem like it's a "10 years later" type of story. And I'm cool with that - Evolution was a very enjoyable show and it would be nice to see some animated consistancy in storylines (much like DC's animated line - from Batman to Superman to Justice League). It would be nice to not start a whole new X-Men animated continuity for the third time.

The trailer also shows obvious movie references, though I doubt this is a continuation of the movies (Iceman's parents find out he's a mutant in the trailer). The designs for Iceman's family is obviously movie-based, as is the representation of Pyro's power (of course, that may have held true in Evolution - I can't remember).

So even though we're apparently still some time away from the series' debut, I'm very much looking forward to it. There's nothing like a cartoon based on a comic to show how much of a nerd I truly am - as I write in a blog about comics.

Genext: Lame concept with a lame name

2008-02-21T17:49:00.000-05:00

I should be a motivational speaker. Look at my results!

I spotted in Marvel's solicitations for May a curious title called GENEXT apparently written by Chris Claremont. It's a five issue mini series, with the first issue being solicited thus:

You asked for it, X-Fans, and now, you got it! Marvel.com asked you what Chris Claremont’s next project should be. You, the fans, said you wanted to know what today’s new generation of X-Men would be like if the Marvel Universe aged in real-time! Who are the children of the X-Men? And what happened to the original team, Professor X, and Magneto after over 30 years of conflict, victories, and tragedies? Now, at last, the answers arrive as beloved X-Men scribe Chris Claremont reveals an all-new generation of mutant teens!

My obvious question would be who in the hell asked for another "possible X-future" book from Chris Claremont? Didn't we all learn better after X-Men: the End? It's such a random premise, I doubt that any collection of fans would ask for that - and I don't recall seeing a vote anywhere. But of course, I stray from Claremont books nowadays, so it may have turned up in Exiles or New Excalibur.

So let's look at the premise specifically as it is written. Let's say the X-Men debuted - with the original five members being teenagers - in 1963. Here we are, 45 years later. Uh, I think we'd be past the "next generation" by this point, or at least past where they'd be teenagers. We'd be heading towards the "generation after that", and they really wouldn't be old enough to be doing much of anything heroic (Power Pack notwithstanding, because it kills my argument).

But nevermind that first gaffe. Fine - teenagers, next generation, I got it. So we'll be looking at, in real time, a group of mutants who have aged through times like Vietnam, the end of the Cold War, September 11, and the hullabaloo that's gone on since (which is an opportunity for a plug on my other blog). That, I think, would be neat.

But I know better than that. It's not going to be like that at all. Instead, we're going to get exactly what X-Men: the End was, except with new characters and without the whole "last X-Men story" thing. The current team is old, new people come in. It'll be nothing but a chance for Claremont to plug his own stories, so expect Rogue to be called "Anna Raven", the Phoenix to show up somewhere, someone to yell "I am (NAME)!!!!" and Sage to be the deus ex-machina for whatever the situation needs.

This is going to be nothing more than five issues to let Claremont write a Claremont story. Personally, I thought that's why they retooled Exiles for him, but apparently, this is what the X-Fans wanted. I have been an X-Fan since the late 80s, so as long as they keep him away from the core books, I'll have what I want. I appreciate everything Claremont has done, but I don't think he's anywhere near the quality he used to be - and even if he was, comics of the 00s are not like they were in the 80s.

Definitely going to skip this one.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-02-20T19:28:00.000-05:00

#1 - Continuity, Shmontinuity

The biggest thing wrong with "One More Day" is that it throws at least twenty years of Spider-Man continuity out the window. Ask Joe Quesada or even Dan Slott and they'll tell you that it doesn't. That every story is still completely intact. That it all still happened, only people remember it differently. Well, that argument falls apart after examining a couple of the key new developments of "Brand New Day". Even accepting the memory change, things simply could not have happened exactly as the last twenty years worth of Spider-Man comics says they did and still arrived at "Brand New Day."

First off, Spidey's organic web shooters. After mutating into a giant spider, he managed to revert to human form but retained the ability to shoot webs without the aid of his mechanical shooters. If that all still happened exactly the same way, then why does Spider-Man need the web shooters again? Does he still have the organic webbing ability, he just doesn't remember he has it? Or does he not have it anymore, which would mean that the story in which he got the ability never took place?

Harry Osbourne. Is he back from the dead or did he never die? Or did he die and people just don't remember that he died so the Harry walking around now is simply a figment of everyone's imagination?

What about all the people who knew Spider-Man's secret identity, even those who learned it before Civil War? How can those characters still have the same relationship with Spidey when they suddenly forget who he is? (Side Rant: And aren't people like Dr. Strange and Charles Xavier going to question why they suddenly had one particular memory erased? It's not as if they never knew, as the first issue of "Brand New Day' states that Spider-Man did in fact unmask during the Civil War, but now for some reason no one remembers his name or what his face looks like. They seriously aren't going to try to get to the bottom of that?)

Those are only a few examples. There are many more continuity questions raised by "One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day". What parts of Spider-Man's history have been changed? What parts are the same? The story opens up that last twenty years of continuity and allows any writer to go in and change anything they see fit and simply point to "One More Day" when a fan asks for an explanation. I didn't like it when DC did it with Infinite Crisis and I certainly don't like it when it happens to my favorite character.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-02-20T18:53:00.000-05:00

#2 - Is This Seriously the Best They Could Do?

Let's say for a moment that Joe Quesada was right. Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane was dragging Spider-Man down. Stories were boring. Sales were hurting. The fans were clamoring for an end to the marriage and something needed to be done.

Even if that were the case, the sloppy, heavy-handed solution brought about in "One More Day" was the best Quesada could come up with? Even with J. Michael Straczynski and all the writers of Marvel at his disposal? A deal with the devil and then a fast and quick resolution that changes everything and explains nothing. Oh wait, they do offer an explanation. "Everything still happened the same, people just remember it happening differently." For example here's the way Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 actually happened:

After the new status quo of "Brand New Day" here's how we remember it happening:

Ah yes, who could forget the issue where Peter showed off his snazzy new tux. A classic moment in the character's history. Come on. You have to admit, that's a little lame and a little lazy. It's almost as if they simply wanted to change things and said "Don't worry, we'll explain it later. If we get around to it."

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-02-20T17:52:00.000-05:00

#3 - Who Ordered the Single Spider-Man?

The average comic book reader is 20-25 years old. The average age a which child learns to read is five years old. Do the math and that means that the majority of people who're reading new issues of Spider-Man now (not back issues, trades, or reprints) and have been for any extended period have been reading married Spider-Man the entire time. (That's exactly where I fit in, by the way.) Mary Jane is a huge part of the Spider-Man mythos to these readers. So who were the readers calling for her to get the boot? I'm not saying they don't exist, but I don't recall reading or hearing about it. Except, of course, in interviews with Joe Quesada. He's always been clear that he wanted Mary Jane out of the picture. Now, I understand that Quesada runs the Marvel Comics and that he can do what ever he wants, but surely there must be some impetus for drastically changing a character's history other than Joe Quesada wanted it to happen. With fan backlash and even one of the most well respected writers in the business telling him it was a bad idea, he must've had a damn good reason to go through with it.

There's two main reasons, that I can think of, for doing something in comics:
1-It's what the fans want. Give people what they ask for, they'll pay money for it.
2-There's a good story in it. Even if people criticize at first, if the resulting story turns out to be good they'll enjoy it.

Well, "One More Day" certainly wasn't what the majority of Spider-Man fans wanted. That said, there had better be some damn good stories coming out of the newly established "Brand New Day" status quo.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-02-20T17:17:00.000-05:00

#4 - The Spider-Man Swings Alone

As much as the intended purpose of Civil War was to tear the Marvel Universe apart, it did an excellent job of bringing things together. After setting it up in House of M, Civil War established an over arching theme to the entire universe. You really got the sense that all of these characters, even in their own books, existed in the same universe at the same time. What happened in books like Captain America and Iron Man had ties to what happened in other books like Wolverine and New Avengers, and so on. Not in the sense that you had to read everything to get the whole story but that you’d get some bonus insight and background information if you did. One can argue that Marvel’s always been like that, but to me it seemed much more prevalent post Civil War. I was such a fan of this newly integrated universe that I started collecting five new Marvel titles after Civil War.

Right there in the thick of things was Spider-Man. This was a relatively new place for him. Before joining the New Avengers Spidey had mostly swung solo, sticking to his own book(s) and doing his own thing, barring the occasional team-up or special guest appearance. He was sort of where Daredevil is now, and even he has some dealings with The Hood to tie him into New Avengers. I, for one greatly enjoyed the character’s wider integration into the universe over the last couple years. Peter’s friendship with the Avengers, his mentor relationships Captain America and Iron Man, and even the new spin on old connections brought about by the unmasking. Realistically, what more could you have done with Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson?

"One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day" storyline have effectively wiped away those stories and pulled Spidey back into his own corner of the Marvel U. All of his relationship and character developments over the last twenty years, but specifically the last three, have been called into question. Who does Spider-Man know and not know? What did he do and not do? How will writers tackle the issue of Spidey's place in the Marvel Universe without throwing their hands up and saying "It's magic, we don't have to explain it."? Will it even be attempted or will Spider-Man just stick to his own books and drop by New Avengers merely to shoot webs at something and say a funny one liner? My money's on the latter.

Five points to think about:

2008-02-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

Here are five quick thoughts off of my head to spur some thought in yours.

The Iron Man movie will not be big enough to launch a second series and countless minis.
Wonder Woman needs a costume change. Sure, her look is iconic but the character would benefit from having a more conservative outfit in the "world of men".
At least one Wolverine series will be cancelled within a year. My money's on First Class.
One of the three new X-Books (Young X-Men, X-Force, Cable) will not make it to issue #20.
People have gotten over One More Day well before Casey's countdown has finished.

Ultimate redundancy?

2008-02-17T13:37:00.000-05:00

A. David Lewis has written a fascinating look at when the Ultimate universe will catch up with the "616" Marvel Universe, based on the average of appearances in either universe. This is a topic that I know Casey and I have discussed before, so it really should be looked at for any fans of the Ultimate universe.

Check it out here.

X-Force

2008-02-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

The first of three shiny new books for the X-Men line, X-Force hit the shelves yesterday (Cable debuts in March and Young X-Men follows in April). The new title, written by former New X-Men writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, has been heavily hyped since before the start of Messiah CompleX. Hell, a big chunk of the story served as a preview of X-Force. So the title finally debuts, albeit a week late. So how was it? Was it worth the hype? Well, no – not really.

The theme of the book is quite simple: after Messiah CompleX (and apparently all the events leading up to it) Cyclops has decided that desperate times call for desperate measures and has put together a team that will get the job done with a sense of finality. In a nutshell, it’s a killing squad. This plays right up Kyle and Yost’s alley (as they have great trouble getting through a story without killing someone) and it also gives another opportunity for a Wolverine-headlined book (as if Wolverine, Wolverine Origins, the upcoming Wolverine: First Class and countless mini-series weren’t enough). So okay – it’s new for the franchise, and in theory it could work.

The problem here is the execution. X-Force was basically thrown at readers during Messiah CompleX to hunt down and apparently take out Cable. It really didn’t work then, as they had no evidence that Cable had caused anything, save have possession of the baby, yet Cyclops still gave the "any means necessary" order. The lineup was strange as well – Wolverine and X-23 – being the bloodthirsty animals they are – fit. Warpath, Caliban and Hepzibah were odd, but could possibly work (even though Caliban apparently was just there as cannon fodder). Wolfsbane was about as ill a fit as you could get. In no form of the character could you justify having her there. So X-Force spent Messiah as more of a tracker group than an "any means necessary" group.

X-Force opens with a look into Wolverine’s thoughts. I’m not going to go into his point of having never been to Colorado (Really? Wolverine?), but it’s supposed to be a big deal that X-Force disbanded after Caliban died. That’s right, a team that had been together for one mission – and obviously not very long, since Caliban and Hepzibah were members – and it’s a big deal that they’ve split.

Then Cyclops makes the point that Emma doesn’t know he’s doing this, which makes me scratch my head. Emma Frost is the 2nd most powerful telepath in the world, and she shares a bed with Cyclops – can see into his subconscious – yet he’s hiding this. And what for? Emma is amongst the more cold-blooded members of the team. She was the one that first brought up offing the Scarlet Witch at the beginning of House of M. She was the one who broke Cassandra Nova’s neck. Why would she not go fully with the idea of permanently removing villains who pose a threat to herself and her students? The tone of "secret missions" is set for no particular reason besides that it seems cool.

So the team gets back together – sans Hepzibah who’s not even mentioned – and off they go on their mission against the Purifiers, who have apparently infiltrated SHIELD to get the head of Bastion – something I’m going to have to wait and see on. The issue has the apparently obligatory heavy-blood fight (complete with blades through the face, for good measure) and it ends with the overused Kyle/Yost device of making it look like someone gets killed for the cliffhanger. We’ve seen this too many times to really even matter anymore.

There are three things beyond the details of the issue itself that concerns me about this book. First are the comparisons to the original X-Force series launched by Rob Liefeld back in 1991. Obviously I have strong doubts about this, but I don’t think it’s fair to argue that it shouldn’t be called X-Force because it doesn’t have the same premise as the original. Hell, the original lost the original premise within 20 issues. The "Cable makes soldiers out of the New Mutants" bit ended when Cable vanished after X-Cutioner’s Song and they began setting their own place in the world. Yet, that Liefeld concept is what I keep reading about. This is not going to be that – quit trying to think that it should be. It’s actually the third appropriate use of the title – the second being when Warren Ellis took the book on in 2000.

My second concern is the book’s art, courtesy of Clayton Crain. Don’t misunderstand me on this one – I think the art’s flat-out gorgeous. But with such wonderful art usually comes long delays in a book. Take examples from Jim Lee on All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, whichever Kubert is working on Action Comics or Bryan Hitch on Ultimates. I’m not familiar with Crain, so perhaps he’s above the mold on this one, and I certainly hope so. The book’s art is amazing and definitely a drawing point.

Finally, I’m concerned about the premise of the title. The "desperate times call for desperate measures" idea is somewhat new to the X-Men mythos, especially taken to the level that it seems to be here. However, how long can you really draw this premise out? Surely, some villains will have to be killed to give the book some sort of credibility, yet does that mean all X-Men villains will be hunted as the book continues? How can you justify them being X-Force worthy? If they all are, then why bother with X-Men at all? Will new villains be created just to be killed? This seems like much more of a mini/maxi series premise than an ongoing. I can see two or three story arcs coming out before the title begins to drag.

So go ahead and give this title a try if you like the premise and enjoy great art. I’m obviously not optimistic about it, but hey, only one issue’s come out thus far. I’ll keep getting it to see where it goes – and hopefully many of my concerns are unfounded.

Trinity

2008-02-12T17:19:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, DC officially announced that Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley would be working on a new weekly title called "Trinity," and this book would feature the big 3 of DC: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The first 12 pages of each issue would be done by Busiek and Bagley, and the last 10 pages done by other creative teams, and will somehow tie into the story. Here are some of my opinions on questions that might be coming to mind.

Why put Superman and Batman in another book? This brings up the complaint of over-saturization. Superman is currently an active member in 4 books, and Batman is regularly active in 4-7 books. Add that Wonder Woman is in 2 books, and that does bring up the question, 'why do we need these characters in another book.?' The answer to that is, 'why not?' Why not put characters in another book if someone has what is believed to be a good story to tell? Someone with a good story to tell should not be told no, based on how many books are already out. Would you have told Jeph Loeb not to do The Long Halloween because there were already enough books with Batman in them?

Where does this fit in continuity? Right now, who cares? People care way too much about continuity. The more important thing is the quality of the story. I would rather read a good story that I have no idea how it fits into the rest of the universe, than a bad story that I know where it fits in. Just enjoy the story.

Why another weekly title? This, I do not really have an answer for. It all depends on the quality and purpose of the backup stories. If the backup stories are poor, and pointless, then the case can be made that this book could really be a bi-weekly book, with just Busiek and Bagley's work. However, that is a judgment that cannot, and should not be made until after the book launches in June.

I am sure there are more questions running through people's minds, but those are the one's that I can think of at the moment. In summary, everything depends on the quality of the book. If it is a good book, people will enjoy it, and not question the frivilous details about it. If it is a bad book, then questions and doubts will flow forth. People will pay for a good story, regardless if it comes out every week, or every couple of months. Sure, they may complain, but the book will still be bought.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-01-19T20:18:00.000-05:00

#5 - What Would Aunt May Think Of All This?

May Parker, along with her husband Ben, took in young Peter Parker when his parents were killed in a plane crash. They raised him as their own and doted on the boy to the point of being overprotective. The three of them became a family, the only family that any of them had in the world. After Ben's murder the bond between Peter and his Aunt May grew even stronger, despite his double life as Spider-Man. They were all they had, all they knew they could count on. When May's health began to fail, Peter took it as his responsibility to take care of her. It was his fault that Uncle Ben had died, so it was his job to make sure she was okay.

May loved Peter, but her poor health made her realize that she wouldn't be around forever and that he couldn't stay with her for the rest of his life. She knew it was important for him to make his own way in the world. To get out on his own, make new friends, and meet girls. That's why she was overjoyed when Peter finally conceded to meet Mary Jane Watson, and she saw the two of them get along so well.

So what would Aunt May think about the choice presented to Peter in "One More Day"? After all, this story does kind of revolve around her. And she doesn't get a say in it, at all. If she knew that one thing had to end, either her life or the love between Peter and Mary Jane, which do you think she would pick? Read these pages from Sensational Spider-Man #39 and let me know what you think...

[Note: Sensational #39 is only two issues before the start of the OMD arc. After being shot, Aunt May is in a coma. With the help of Madame Web, Peter is able to go into May's subconscious and converse with her. Once inside her mind, he finds himself in front of their old house on the night of Uncle Ben's murder.]

If you said that Aunt May would gladly give up a chance to save her life in order to ensure Peter and Mary Jane's happiness, you are correct. Even before reading that issue I knew that she would never, in a million years, accept the terms of Mephisto's deal. In Aunt May's own words, she's old, tired, and ready to hang it up. Hell, she's been trying to die for the better part of forty-five years. I can understand Peter not wanting to let her go. I can understand his feelings of guilt, that it would be his fault if she died this way. But to resort to ridiculously desperate means to save her (i.e. a deal with the devil) at the expense of his marriage when she, in not so many words, told him not to do that...to have Peter Parker violate what was basically Aunt May's last request was a really, really bad move. What if Marvel ever decides to set continuity back and May finds out about this? Do you think she'll be pleased with her nephew? How will Peter explain this?

Oh wait...it's magic, he doesn't have to explain it.

Enough with the Fastest Family Alive

2008-01-17T17:55:00.000-05:00

I usually read through the Cheers and Jeers column over on Comics Should Be Good! and one of his points this week really caught my eye:

JEERS to Flash’s kids. I’m sorry, Mr. Waid. I don’t mind Wally being married. I don’t mind him having kids, even. But the whole Incredibles riff, while a cute concept, just isn’t working for me.

This struck home with me because it was that very reason that I decided not to read Flash once it was relaunched at the start of the Countdown era. I briefly mentioned this back in August when I talked about dropping the title.

This is not about the classic comic debate whether a family-based character works. I definitely don't want to fall into that hole. This isn't about whether the character changes with the aspect of coming home to the wife and kids and the occasional story where a villain puts them at risk. With a mature character like Superman, it really works. With a character like Spider-Man, it (THIS SENTENCE REMOVED BY MEPHISTO).

But what's going on with Flash is different. Here, the kids are actually in action with Flash. It's a family-hero book in the spirit of, like the article said, the popular Disney/Pixar movie the Incredibles. The super-powered kids go into action with the hero and together they make a fantastic team. That may work in a stand-alone book, but it really doesn't fit into modern DC (especially after all the death and destruction of Infinite Crisis/52/World War III/Countdown) and it doesn't work with a mainstream hero like the Flash. The Flash - especially the Wally West one - should be hero-ing out on his own. With his collection of rogues (quite possibly the second-best in comics, only falling to Batman's) and a well-populated supporting cast, there's more than enough to tell with Wally doing it on his own. There is no need for the excess baggage of this idea, and I'm questioning how long the format will last now that Mark Waid will be gone from the book.

Don't get me wrong - I love Mark Waid's work, but I just couldn't get into this format, and that's why Flash left my list of monthly titles after one issue under the old numbering.

Messiah Complex - Almost there!

2008-01-15T18:02:00.000-05:00

We're a week and a day away from the finale of Messiah CompleX and one day from what is usually the climactic chapter of such a storyline. So where are we?

SPOILERS AHOY!

Killed by Layla Miller in the future, Madrox's consciousness returns to his prime form and reveals to Cyclops' group (Emma Frost, Iceman, X-Factor) that Bishop is the traitor.
Bishop, meanwhile, is with an unsuspecting X-Force (Wolverine, Wolfsbane, Warpath, X-23, Hepzibah) in assaulting the Marauders on Muir Island, trying to reclaim the baby.
An injured Cable has enlisted the aid of Professor X, and the two are also headed to Muir Island.
Predator X has come to the Institute and face-to-face with the remaining members of the New X-Men.
Mystique and Gambit have taken control of the baby and, apparently unbeknownst to the other Marauders, have seemingly done away with Sinister.

So there's the present leading into tomorrow's New X-Men #46. Knowing writers Chris Yost and Craig Kyle, I'd say at least one person will be dead and gone before the issue's done. So who's gone down so far? Here's the casualty list:

Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed by Purifiers on the initial move for the baby.
Prism (Marauders) - Killed with Blockbuster.
Hellion (New X-Men) - Skewered by Lady Deathstrike, in critical condition.
Pixie (New X-Men) - Injured in a blind teleport.
Nightcrawler (X-Men) - Shot by Scalphunter, in serious condition.
O*N*E Sentinel Pilots - Transformed into Sentinel-hybrids, apparently killed.
Elixir (New X-Men) - Injured by debris in the Sentinel attack, unconscious.
Peepers (unaffiliated) - Devoured by Predator X.
Caliban (X-Men) - Killed by shots from a Reaver.
Lady Deathstrike (Reavers) - Killed by X-23.
Forge (unaffiliated) - Injured by Bishop.
Sinister (Marauders) - Taken down by Mystique, possibly killed.
Lady Mastermind (Marauders) - Skewered by Wolverine, possibly killed.

That's stacking up pretty nicely, huh? I was going to write a list of hits and misses thus far, but I think I'll wait a week and give the final wrap-up after the last issue comes out. See you then!

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-01-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

#6 - Even the Guy Writing It Didn't Think It Was a Good Idea

The following are excerpts from postings by former Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski on Newsarama and his own site, JMSNews:

"Spider-Man belongs to Marvel, not to me, and at the end of the day, however much I may disagree with things, and however much I may make it very CLEAR to all parties that I disagree, I have to honor their position."

***

"In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat...So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way...because who knows, the other guy may be right."

***

"...the primary reason I finally threw up my hands on the book, which had mainly to do with how the resolution was handled.

To explain, here's the conversation I had with Marvel, in sum:

"So what does Mephisto do?" I ask.

"He makes everybody forget Peter's Spider-Man."

"Uh, huh. So Aunt May's still in the hospital --"

"No, he saves Aunt May."

"But if all he does is save her life and make everybody forget he's Spidey, she still has a scar on her midsection."

"No, he makes that go away too."

"Okay...:

"Then he wakes up in her house."

"The house that was burned down?"

"Right."

"But how --"

"Mephisto undoes that as well."

"Okay. And the guys who shot at Peter and May and were killed, they're alive too? Mephisto can bring guys back from the dead?"

"It's all part of the spell."

"And Doc Strange can't tell?"

"No,"

"And the newspaper articles? News footage?"

"Joe, it's been forgotten."

"I'm just asking is that stuff there or not there?"

"Not there. And Peter's web shooters are back."

"Is this the same spell or a different spell?"

"Same spell."

"How does making people forget he's Spidey bring back his web shooters?"

"It's magic, okay?"

"I see. And Harry's back."

"Right."

"And Mephisto does this too."

"Yep."

"So is Harry back from the dead, or has he been alive? If they ask him, hey Harry, what did you do last summer, will he remember? And the year before? And the year before? If he says they all went on a picnic two years ago, will they remember it?"

"It's --"

"Because if he now has a life he remembers, if he's not back from the dead, then you've changed the continuity you said you didn't want to change. Those are your only options: he was brought back from the dead, and there's a grave, and people remember him dying --"

"Mephisto changes THEIR memories too."

"-- or he's effectively been alive as far as our characters know, so he's been alive all along, so either way as far as our characters are concerned, continuity's been violated going back to 1971.

How do you explain that?"

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it."

And that's the part I had a real problem with, maybe the single biggest problem. There's this notion that magic fixes everything. It doesn't. "It's magic, we don't have to explain it." Well, actually, yes, you do. Magic has to have rules. And this is clearly not just a case of one spell making everybody forget he's Spidey...suddenly you're bringing back the dead, undoing wounds, erasing records, reinstating web shooters, on and on and on.

***

[Note: Straczyniski's original outline for the changes to Spider-Man in OMD involved changing one thing in Spidey's history, that being Peter calling out Harry on his drug addiction and forcing him into rehab. Harry gets clean, he and MJ stay together. Thus, Harry never becomes the Green Goblin, never dies, and Peter and MJ never get married. Joe Quesada didn't like this option because he thought it invalidated more than twenty years of Spider-Man continuity. Of course the plan he ultimately went with didn't do that at all, did it? Ugh.]

What I wanted to do was to make one small change to history, a tiny thing, whose ripples we could control to only touch what editorial wanted to touch, making changes we could explain logically. I worked for weeks to come up with a timeline that would leave every other bit of continuity in place. It was rigorous, and as logical as I could make it. In the end of OMD as published, Harry is alive and he's always been alive as far as the characters know...so how is that different than he was alive the whole time?

It made no sense to me.

Still doesn't. It's sloppy. It violates every rule of writing fiction of the fantastic that I and every other SF/Fantasy writer knows you can't violate. It's fantasy 101."

***

"Mainly, the book was rewritten in the editorial offices to a degree that the words weren't mine any longer, to a certain degree in three, and massively in four. If the work represents me, I leave the name there and take the rap; if it doesn't, then that's a different situation. There's just not much of my work there, especially once you get to the last dong of midnight...everything after that was written by editorial.

Whether my work is good or it sucks, it's mine. What came out of the end of OMD wasn't, hence my desire to omit the writing credit. Joe graciously offered to share it on the last issue. I think that helped. Credit where credit is due."

'Nuff said.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Was the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-01-11T20:29:00.001-05:00

#7 - Let's Make A Deal

Joe Quesada doesn't want characters to smoke in any Marvel comics because he feels it delivers a bad message to children. He also shot down the idea of Peter Parker being the father of Gwen Stacy's twins in J. Michael Straczynski's poorly received "Sins Past" storyline in Amazing Spider-Man because he didn't like the idea that Spidey had had unprotected, premarital sex. He also insists that simply divorcing Peter and MJ would irrevocably taint the characters and once again send a bad message to children. But trading off your immortal soul in exchange for a favor from the Prince of Darkness? Have at the one kids!

Now, I don't believe in the devil. I know you can't realistically do that in the way you could do the other three things I mentioned. I also know Mephisto isn't really Satan, but in the Marvel U he might as well be. But I also know that there are people do believe the devil is real. And if you're the kind of person to consider all these things to be real possibilities and really bad things, which one do you think would be the worst?

And the fact that Spider-Man trusts Mephisto and accepts the deal? Hasn't he seen or read any of the hundreds of stories where the devil promises someone something fantastic only to somehow screw them over? Spidey's supposed to be smarter than that.

Status quo changes, good? Liar!

2008-01-09T11:30:00.001-05:00

Change is not good in comics. Nobody wants change in comics. They'll tell you they do, but believe me, they're lying. People like the status quo, and they'll raise hell if you try to change it.

There was a time when some guy named Grant Morrison took the X-Men franchise and turned it in a brand new direction. Gone were the costumes, the super-epic missions and in their place were a school-based setting with the team members functioning as teachers. It was different, edgier, and at first, people didn't like it. Sure, no one will admit to it now, because the run turned into one of the greatest periods in X-Men history. Looking back, the complaints appear as what they actually are - hating change to the status quo.

Where were you when Captain America died? If you're like a good number of fans, you were in front of your computer complaining about it onto any and every forum you could find. How could you kill such an iconic character? Surely he won't stay dead! How could you have the title go on without him? Nevermind that since his death, the title has churned out quality issue after quality issue, showing the strengths of the supporting cast without the lead being present.

So of course, we get to One More Day, the Spider-Man storyline that completely changed the status quo of the character. While in my mind it's not as tragic as people seem to think (read Joe Quesada's five part interview closely), people seem unable to get past the fact that it happened, and do not look forward at all to future storylines. You have star teams of writers and artists taking on a character in a setting that really makes him shine. Personally, I would prefer a happy, wise-cracking Spider-Man with a colorful supporting cast mixing his two lives rather than the grim, no-nonsense, on-the-run Spider-Man that followed Civil War. Was this the best way of solving the solution? Perhaps not, but it was better than taking the years needed to get there, with brash mischaracterizations in every other place Spidey was appearing (why was he so happy in New Avengers?).

If the storylines of Brand New Day are good, which I say is a strong chance with the star power involved, people will quickly forget about One More Day. That's how it works with status quo changes - about a month of complaining, then acceptance and moving on. The future may vindicate the story, like Morrison's New X-Men did, or it may bury it like the Electro-Superman debacle did.

Either way, quit your bitching and try to enjoy the stories for what they are, rather than what you think they should be. If you don't agree, feel free to write your own.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

2008-01-08T17:20:00.000-05:00

#9 - Haven't We Been Here Before?

Spider-Man made his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August of 1962, celebrating his 45th anniversary last summer. The Web Head's had a multitude of titles over the years as well: Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Unlimited, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and I'm sure there have been others. My point is that there's a veritable cornucopia of Spidey stories out there for the reading. The vast majority of those stories featured the secret identity and the mechanical webshooters. Peter Parker was single until 1987 and those first twenty-five years featured plenty of stories about a down-on-his-luck Parker trying to pay the bills, get a date, keep his identity secret, and take care of dear old Aunt May, all the while fulfilling his responsibilities as Spider-Man. These aspects can be considered Spider-Man's trademarks but they can also be considered Spider-Man's cliches. After all the growth that the character has experienced in the last few years, the changes brought about by "One More Day" seem like a huge step backward. Do we really need to go back to stories that feature Aunt May's poor health, running out of web fluid, and secret identity skulduggery as convenient plot devices? I'm not saying the stories would necessarily be bad, but why try to turn back the clock instead of moving forward? This leads right into my next item...

#8 - This "New" Version of Spider-Man is Readily Available In Other Places

The version of Spider-Man that Joe Quesada sought to establish in the regular Marvel Universe post-"One More Day" already existed, basically, in three other formats. The young, single Spidey not only existed in the first quarter century of Spider books, but relaunched in books like Marvel Age Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man. If this change , as Joe Quesada insists, is what's needed to get more people reading Amazing, then these two books should be outselling the flagship title, right? They're not. I didn't research it extensively, but according to Diamond's sales numbers to comic specialty stores throughout 2007 Amazing Spider-Man was consistently in the top 15 books sold for the month, Ultimate was usually somewhere around number 25, and Marvel Age Spider-Man was usually found somewhere in the low 200s.

The First Post of a New Year

2008-01-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

I realize I haven't posted much here in the last couple months and to be perfectly honest, it's because I've been lazy. But that changes now, as I've read a comic story so mind numbingly awful that I simply must write down my thoughts about it if only to get them out of my head so I don't get a tumor. So let's begin the first installment of:

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

For those you who might not know, "One More Day" is the story of Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane desperately looking for a way to save the life of Aunt May, who is at death's door after taking a bullet from an assassin sent after Peter, a direct result of him publicly revealing himself to be Spider-Man. Exhausting every possible option, Peter and MJ ultimately make a deal with Mephisto (Marvel's version of the devil) to save May's life. The catch is, Mephisto wants their marriage as payment. Phisty waves his pointy red hand and undoes the last twenty-some-odd years of Spider-Man continuity. Peter is single, living with Aunt May in Queens, his secret identity is once again intact, his organic webshooters are gone and his former best friend Harry Osbourne is back from the dead.

I honestly don't care if I spoiled it for anyone. If I did, I see it as me doing you a favor. This story is so fundamentally flawed it's ridiculous. I tried to sit down and write out how I felt about it in one concise entry but I couldn't. There was simply too much to complain about. So with out further ado, here's number ten...

#10 - Joe Quesada Said This Kind of Thing Wouldn't Happen

In the late spring of 2006 the second issue of Marvel Comic's Civil War series hit the newsstands. This wasn't just another installment of what would turn out to be a landmark series for the company, this particular issue contained a huge event for what most would say is the company's flagship character. At a press conference held by Tony Stark, Spider-Man took off his mask and told the world that his name was Peter Parker.

This was arguably the biggest event in the character's 45-year history. The story garnered national media attention. Here's an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times interview with Marvel Editor-In-Chief, Joe Quesada on the subject:

"It can be very intimidating if you don't know where the story is going or how it ends; we do, so we're just excited about where it takes us and the story possibilities it offers," Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday.

So they were excited about the possible story ideas? So was I honestly. There were forty-five year's worth of Spider-Man secret identity stories on the books and it was exciting to think where they could go without it. Where did they go? Let's see...since the unmasking there was "Back In Black" that ran thru Amazing Spider-Man, "The Lethal Foes of Peter Parker" and a Mr. Hyde story in Sensational Spider-Man, and something Peter David wrote about a crazy lady made of spiders over in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Not a lot in my opinion and the only things that really capitalized on the potential of the unmasking was "Back In Black" and a one-off issue of Friendly Neighborhood that featured a confrontation between Peter and J. Jonah Jameson. There was still much more fertile ground to explore with this new status quo. And creators seemed to have plenty of opportunity to do it, because the interview goes on to say:

He also promised that Marvel won't be backing-off of Spidey's big revelation by zapping the public with a forget-me ray or saying the press conference was a dream or a hoax. "We won't be pulling a Bobby Ewing with this," said Quesada.

For those of you who might not understand the reference, Bobby Ewing was a character on the hit show Dallas played by Patrick Duffy. Here's what Wikipedia has to say in regards to "pulling a Bobby Ewing":

At the end of the 1985 season, Patrick Duffy expressed his desire to leave the series. Thus, his character of Bobby died when he was run over by a car driven by his sister-in-law, Katherine Wentworth. This proved to be a mistake as it left the show without one of its most popular characters. Larry Hagman persuaded Duffy to return to the series the following season. Dallas scriptwriters created a storyline which featured Pam waking up to find Bobby in the shower (in the May 1986 cliffhanger episode) - with the realization that the storylines of the preceding season, including the accident, were nothing more than a lengthy dream sequence (thus invalidating the entire 1985-1986 season of the show).

So Quesada said that there wouldn't be a story written that would magically undo the unmasking let alone any number of other Spider-Man stories. Less than a year and a half later, that's exactly what happened. Now I know he didn't say this in a courtroom with his hand on a bible but he said it nonetheless.

Quesada has also said that he wasn't a fan of the idea of Marvel having a "crisis" or a DC-esque rebooting of continuity for any of the Marvel books as he felt it was entirely unnecessary. If a writer wanted to change a character's status quo or something about their past that he didn't like, the writer simply told the stories that logically got the characters from one point to the next. (As Ed Brubaker masterfully did with restoring Daredevil's secret identity and bring Bucky back as the Winter Soldier.) You didn't just zap the characters from one point to another and point to a big deus ex machina as an explanation for any changes. (Although there is a little of that in House of M.)

But if you ask Joe Quesada, he'll tell you that "One More Day" didn't change a thing about Spider-Man's continuity. More on that later.

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

2008-01-05T10:49:00.000-05:00

---Spoilers---

Batman Annual #26
By Peter Milligan & David Lopez

Talia tells an uninterested Damian stories about the past of Ra's al Ghul. These stories include Ra's first love, Sora, and how they discovered the Lazrus Pits from work her late father had done. However, his ambition lead to her death. From this, he becomes enraged, and assumed the title of the Demon's Head. Another story has Ra's being instrumental in Napoleon losing the battle of Waterloo, and taking Napoleon's mistress. The last story is from the time of Jack the Ripper, in London, and shows the White Ghost (Ra's assistant) informing Ra's of a way to cheat death if he cannot get to a Lazrus Pit in time. Part of the plan includes the writings of Ra's history. It is revealed that Damian is hearing these stories because the White Ghost plans on Ra's inhabiting Damian's body, and those memories are necessary. Damian and Talia escape before White Ghost can perform the ceremony for Ra's to inhabit Damian's body. During this time, Batman is investigating the disappearance of two scientists, and finds their murdered bodies, on the way to finding White Ghost's Lazrus Pit. Nicely written story showing some of the history of Ra's al Ghul. Released in August, successfully teased the upcoming cross-over.

Robin Annual #7 "The Festival of the Hungry Ghosts"
By Keith Champagn & Jason Pearson
In this back-up story, Damian fights a bunch of ghosts. There's more to it than this, but not necessary to the tale. At the end he defeats four Robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, original Tim Drake costume, new Tim Drake costume). It is revealed that this was just a test, and a cloaked Ra's al Ghul was watching him.

*note: While only the second story in this annual involves the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, the first story, "The Great Pumpkin," also written by Keith Champagne, worth a read. It is a mystery of some gruesome killings happening around Halloween. It's difficult to write a truly dark Robin story that is also good and true to the character, but Keith Champagne accomplishes it.

Batman #670 - Prelude "Lazarus Rising"
By Grant Morrison & Tony Daniel

Major plot points: I-Ching was attacked by someone being possessed by the Sensei, who is looking for Nanda Parbat; Batman rescues I-Ching; Talia hires 3 female villians to distract Batman; Batman easily takes them out, and learns of the return of Ra's al Ghul; Ra's al Ghul reveals his bandaged, decomposing self to Talia and Damian; it is learned that Damian is to be the new host body for Ra's, and this will effectively kill Damian's consciousness; Damian escapes.

Morrison's writing maintains its high standard. Tony Daniel on art is a nice addition to the book.

Robin #168 - Part 1 "A Boy for the Demon"
By Peter Milligan & Freddie E. Williams II

Major plot points: Damian sneaks into the Batcave looking for Batman, but finds Robin; Damian and Robin have a confrontation then fight throughout stately Wayne Manor; Ra's has Talia captive on a boat; Batman rescues her, but Ra's is gone; Sensei continues his search for clues as to the location of Nanda Parbat; large number of members of the League of Assassins approaching stately Wayne Manor.

This had the first of two fill-in writers working on the cross-over, but Adam Beechen did not write the issue before this either, and Chuck Dixon is taking over this month. So, having a fill-in writer is not bad. And besides, Milligan is a pretty good writer, in my opinion.

Nightwing #138 - Part 2 "The Lesser of Two Evils"
By Fabian Nicieza & Don Kramer

Major plot points: Nightwing is alerted to go to stately Wayne Manor, and teleports there; Batman and Talia search for Ra's, leaving Damian and Robin to fight the LoA; Sensei continues his quest; Ra's has to get to Nanda Parbat to prepare to posses Damian; big fight between Robin, Nightwing and Damian versus the LoA; Robin and Damian taken away when Nightwing keeps the 3 female villians from the Prelude from being poisoned.

Here is the second of the fill-in writers. Marv Wolfman left the book, and I believe Tomasi is taking over in January. Nicely written issue. It should also be noted that Damian is a hothead, and does not really listen to anyone. Just a little bit of the character development that is missed by just covering the main plot points.

Detective Comics #838 - Part 3
By Paul Dini & Ryan Benjamin

Major plot points: Damian and Robin are taken to Ra's; Damian escapes, and leaves Robin behind; Ra's plays mind games with Robin, offering to bring Robin's parents back to life, and mentor him; Batman and Talia run into I-Ching during their trek through mountains, in search of Ra's; Nightwing and Alfred arrive in Tibet, and fight off some LoA members and Ubu; sword fight between Batman and Ra's; Ra's asks Batman to choose which son of his will die, Robin or Damian.

I like Paul Dini's writing. It's not the usual fare we have been seeing in Detective, but still a well written issue. See a pattern forming?

Batman #671 - Part 4 "He Who Is Master"
By Grant Morrison & Tony Daniel

Major plot points: Sensei has found and taken over Nanda Parbat; Batman agrees to take Ra's al Ghul to the Fountain of Life in Nanda Parbat in order to save Robin and Damian; Batman and Ra's make it to Nanda Parbat and fight the Sensei's men; they go to the Fountain of Life, and find the Sensei, who is revealed to be Ra's al Ghul's father; Sensei "kills" Ra's, and fights Batman; during the fight, Sensei goes into the Fountain, and it burns him; Ra's al Ghul's spirit inhabits another body.

Did I mention early that I like Morrison's writing and Daniel's art? Well, I do. And whoever decides the layouts does a phenomenal job. The fight between Sensei was amazingly done. Sensei says that he can fight all out for under two minutes, and fortunately only needs one to defeat Batman. The fight keeps going after Sensei believes he finishes off Batman, and asks him what he is doing. Batman replies with, 'lasting longer than a minute.' It was just a nice Batman moment.

Robin #169 - Part 5
By Peter Milligan & David Baldeon

Keep in mind that Robin is thinking about Ra's al Ghul's offer, or asking questions about it the entire issue. Major plot points: Robin, Damian, and Talia fight of the LoA; Damian hightails it out of there before the fight is done to rejoin his father; Talia chases after Damian; I-Ching keeps the LoA busy for Robin to leave as well; Robin questions Talia about how the Lazrus Pit works, but she is more concerned about Damian, and leaves to find him, while he stays behind; Batman finishes off the Sensei's men, and denies the hand of friendship extended to him by Ra's; Robin briefly fights the White Ghost, but convinces him to take him to the Lazrus Pit; I-Ching allows Robin the choice of going into the pit, but Nightwing shows up to stop him.

My brief summary does not come close to doing Milligan's script justice. If you've been keeping up with Robin for the past 3 years, you know who he has lost, and how tempted he would be to flirt with the idea of resurrecting them. There is a typo in this issue though. Like Detective Comics, this issue does not have an issue title, just the storyline title and what part it is. Only, on the first page, it says "Part 4" instead of "Part 5." Oops. Mike Marts, as the editor, that is on you.

Nightwing #139 - Part 6 "Living Proof"
By Fabian Nicieza & Don Kramer

Major plot points: Nightwing fights Robin, and tries to convince him to leave the Lazrus Pit alone; I-Ching joins in briefly; Damian sneaks onto a cargo helicopter, which was the White Ghost's plan; Robin decides to leave the Lazrus Pit alone, and Night hugs him; Robin, Nightwing, and Talia fly to Nanda Parbat to find Ra's about to inhabit Damian's body.

Once again, the summary does not convey the emotion of the issue. I seriously suggest reading this issue. Even if you don't read any other issues in the story arc, read this one. This was a very emotional issue. I cannot recall any other moment where Nightwing has to play the tough, big brother roll, and Fabian did a wonderful job writing it. Through most of the issue, it remains a mystery as to what Robin will do. You know that he should just leave the Pit alone, but at the same time, you feel sorry for him because he has lost several people close to him, in a short period of time. To hammer this point home, there is a panel right before his final decision that shows him with liquid from the Pit in 3 sample vials, and he sees Stephanie (Spoiler), his dad, and Conner (Superboy) in each of the vials. There's also a bad ass scene of Talia in shredded clothing, a bloody katana in one hand, and a bloody battle axe, thrown over her shoulder in the other.

Detective Comics #839 - Part 7 "Entitlement"
By Paul Dini & Ryan Benjamin with Don Kramer

Major plot points: Batman stops Ra's from taking over Damian's body; Damian shows that he really is a scared, little boy when Batman tells him to pick up a weapon and fight in the war they are in, while Nightwing and Robin show up fighting; Talia babies Damian and he runs off; White Ghost is revealed to be a son of Ra's, and Ra's inhabits his body (permanent since White Ghost is a blood relation); Ra's reveals himself to everyone; Talia knocks out Damian, and runs off with him; sword fight between Batman and Ra's; Robin and Nightwing fight the Sensei's men, who are now working for Ra's; the Monks of Nanda Parbat intervene to put a stop to the fight, by destroying the the place; everyone escapes.

I do believe it was important to show how Damian hesitated when told to pick up a weapon and fight, whereas Robin and Nightwing jumped right in. It reinforced the theme of family that the issue ends with, and was brought up at other parts of the story arc.

-Overall reaction-
I will admit, at first, I was disappointed with the ending. Batman and Ra's are fighting, fighting, fighting, then they separate, appearing to be readying themselves for one final charge. Then the monks show up and things just abruptly end. It had the feeling of being very anti-climatic. But then I thought about more, and the story was titled "Resurrection." And Ra's al Ghul was brought back to life. And it was a fairly believable, for a comic, bringing back to life. No punching a wall of God only knows what.

And the characters did not simply tread water through the story. There was quite a bit of emotional development. Nightwing shows he is capable of showing tough love to protect his brother. Robin shows that he is a emotionally fragile teenager, but still strong enough to overcome. Talia showed that even though she is a fierce warrior, she is also an over-protective mother. Damian showed that his development is no where near that of Robin or Nightwing.

So, with some retrospective, I really enjoyed this story. Yes, it took a second read-through, but enjoying is enjoying. I like where the Batman family is at the end of this story. There was an epilogue in Detective Comics #840 that wraps things up...for now. But you don't get that in this review, because I am only including what is going to be in the trade. In conclusion, I would suggest that you read this story. An actual reading, not a skimming.

Countdown: Arena

2007-12-28T22:32:00.000-05:00

I can sum up my reaction to hearing that this mini-series was going to be made with one word: enthusiasm. I can also sum up my reaction to the mini-series after reading the fourth and final issue: disappointment. Now, disappointment does not necessarily mean that this was a bad mini-series. I have read much worse. But for me, the actual story did not live up to the concept.

Having heroes from different Earths fight each other sounded like a great idea. Monarch is going to use the winners in his army? Still a good concept. Have the captives team up to fight Monarch, thus taking away from the battles? Starting to lose me. Have the the captives fight, and a calvary come in, only to get demolished? Now you've lost me.

Monarch has already been established as a serious force. A mini-series was not needed to drive this point home. All it did was take away from the selling point of the mini-series. I bought the book to see three different versions of the same character fight it out for supremacy, not Monarch plow through everyone. After finishing this, it seems like they could have just put this into Countdown. Or maybe an 80-page special one-shot.

Keith Champagne's writing was not bad. The actual script was an easy read, and flowed smoothly. I know it is odd to not like a story and be okay with a script. It is possible for a bad story to be executed well, and a good story to be executed poorly. Here, Champagne does the best with the story he's been given. I am not a fan of Scott McDaniel's art. If you are, that's fine. It's just not my thing.

If at the end of Countdown, I am proven wrong, and this was necessary, I will come back and write a correction.

New X-Men to survive Messiah Complex

2007-12-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

When the post-Messiah Complex X-solicitations were released by Marvel, conspicuous by its absence was New X-Men, and fans took notice of it. With the release of X-Force some (myself included) thought that the newer book would replace the older, much like the New Mutants/X-Force trade-off of 1991. However, since none of the book’s cast, save X-23, would be in the new one, it left fans questioning the fate of the next generation of X-Men.

Turns out, according to a recent press release, there’s a new title in the works:

David Gabriel, Marvel's Senior Vice-President of Sales and Circulation added, "Sales on New X-Men and X-Factor have more than doubled since this started. With new titles launching out of this event such as X-Force, Cable, X-Men: Legacy and Young X-Men, as well as saying good bye to some old favorites, we'll have an entirely new invigorated X line up for 2008! "

So it looks like New X-Men will be replaced by Young X-Men. While it is a much more fitting title, one can’t help but think it’s a cheap ploy to get a new #1…though it’s not as bad as canceling Exiles just to release New Exiles. That’s as lame as it gets.

Anyway, it looks like there will be a place still for the students! That’s good news!

The Wolverine book nobody asked for...

2007-12-06T23:56:00.000-05:00

Because one pointless Wolverine title (Wolverine: Origins) apparently wasn't enough, it looks like Marvel will shortly be launching a second come March '08. Apparently in the spirit of the surprisingly good X-Men: First Class, the new title will be Wolverine: First Class, and if what the linked interview with writer Fred Van Lente is all coming to pass, then I am not looking forward to it.

If you've missed it (and you're missing out), Jeff Parker and Roger Cruz's X-Men: First Class takes place during the...uh...First Class of Professor Xavier's school (Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel) while they were still teenagers. When this time period actually happened in the comics, it was in the middle of the 1960s, and nobody (from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby founders to later creative teams) seemed to be able to write these kids as, well, kids. They read just like any other Marvel characters at the time (with the exception of Spider-Man) and the joys of youth were completely lost.

First Class allowed news stories during that time period (story-wise) as if the kids were living in the late 90s, early 00s. The premise of the book is not to insert into continuity, but rather to tell the kinds of stories that have the same back story, and allow the reader to have fun with the characters they know.

Wolverine: First Class seems to be missing the point entirely. While saying that this all fits into continuity, by starting out the story right after the close of the Dark Phoenix Saga, the characterization of Wolverine and the relationship between hm and Kitty are off. It feels like he's trying to use the Wolverine of now with the Kitty of then, giving them a mentor/sidekick relationship that did not exist until much later in the book (around the Claremont/Romita era, after their mini-series).

Around Uncanny X-Men #139 (where this story apparently is set), Wolverine was not the trusted veteran that he is today. He was still brash, mysterious, and overly arrogant. In that very issue Wolverine tells Xavier of his intent to return to Canada to sort out his troubles with Department H, Xavier sends Nightcrawler along to chaperon, not fully trusting Wolverine.

Why then would this story have Xavier sending Wolverine on "solo missions" and sending Kitty along for the ride? There is no way that Xavier would subject Kitty to that - especially at that period of her life. Hell, he's the one who demoted her to the New Mutants after he founded the team. The whole concept falls flat. If he's going for the relationship of Wolverine and Kitty after their team-up mini-series, then it needs to be set at that period. To do so at this point, then claim it's in continuity, is wrong - and dumb. I have to ask just how this was allowed.

As for the relationship itself - such a tight bond between the two characters did not come until much later...though it still took me some looking to see how it got so strong. Kitty initially bonded with Storm, then turned to Colossus as she became more comfortable on the team. In fact, the turn was a factor in Storm going to her 'punk look' after Wolverine's wedding. While Wolverine, like Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Angel, all loved Kitty like a little sister, the bond that's being shown in this title just wasn't there until much later.

My point on this? If you want to have this book, then follow X-Men: First Class's example and just tell fun stories in the time period. There's no need to try to push it as in continuity. There's just no way you're going to be able to make that work. It's going to end up like other attempts (X-Men: The Hidden Years and Untold Tales of Spider-Man) as a random memory in the hardcore collector's mind.

Definitely not going on my buy-list.

Messiah Complex - Week 5 Rundown

2007-11-30T00:06:00.000-05:00

SPOILER ALERT!!!

THE GIST
Storm's team (Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Archangel) ambush the Marauders with mental assistance from Emma Frost, but her connection to the team is broken when Pixie screws up teleporting the New X-Men out of the Purifier's base and sends out a massive cry of pain. With the advantage theirs again, the Marauders wipe the floor with the X-Men, but not before Gambit reveals to Wolverine just who has the baby. The Sentinels are overrun and attack the mansion just as the X-Men start planning what do about the very-much-alive Cable, who is on the run with the mutant baby.

THE CASUALTY LIST (new casualties italicized)
Pixie (New X-Men) - Injured
Nightcrawler (X-Men) - Shot
Hellion (New X-Men) - Injured
Madrox (X-Factor) - Comatose
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

Messiah Complex - Week 4 Rundown

2007-11-23T00:09:00.000-05:00

It's been a couple weeks since we took a look at Messiah Complex, so let's take a look at what's gone down. SPOILER ALERT - this will be covering New X-Men #44, which just came out yesterday. You have been warned.

THE GIST
Wolfsbane fakes an attack on the Purifiers, allowing Rictor to infiltrate the group. Madrox and Layla Miller go to Dallas to meet Forge, who tells them that after the new mutant was born, two alternate futures appeared in his sensors. He has Madrox create two dupes and sends them into the future, but Layla jumps on to accompany the second, with apparently no way back. The prime Madrox loses conciousness. Wolverine's squad confronts Amelia Voght, who leads them to the Marauders' Antarctic base, which they attack.

80 years into a possible future, Layla and the Madrox duplicate find a world seemingly without mutants, but quickly learn that all have been herded into "relocation" camps.

The New X-Men confront Cyclops on wanting to assist, but he tells them not to jump the gun. When they discover that the Purifiers are involved, Surge decides to attack, joined by her team, save Prodigy, Dust and Elixir. Armor also accompanies. Both Rictor and the New X-Men discover that the Purifiers do not have the baby, but learn that Lady Deathstrike has joined them - and skewers Hellion through the chest.

THE CASUALTY LIST (new casualties italicized)
Hellion (New X-Men) - Injured, possibly killed
Madrox (X-Factor) - Comatose
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

The Weekly Pile (Jacob)

2007-11-22T21:45:00.000-05:00

Top of the Pile: Green Arrow/Black Canary #2

The rest of this week's titles may feel cheated, and they have every right to feel so. For some reason, my comic shop did not get this issue when it was due out last week, so I had to wait a week to get it. Long story short, I finally got it and it takes top honors this week. If you're looking for a Messiah CompleX story, perhaps you should try my main blog, Graymalkin Lane. (Cheap plug)

I'm very happy that Judd Winick decided not stretch out the mystery of Ollie's "death" and went head first into the crazy action of the rescue. This is the kind of ridiculous action/adventure that you'd see in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie - and it works perfectly here. The four main GA characters (Ollie, Connor, Dinah and Mia) all get plenty of face time here, and their roles are all done perfectly to not feel that they were shoved in for no reason. The book is hilarious, action packed, and very, very good. This is what I wanted when I decided to buy this book.

The Rest of the Pile

New X-Men #44 - Part four of Messiah CompleX. Check Graymalkin Lane for my thoughts on it.

The Walking Dead #44 - The Governor's attack begins, with casualties on both sides.

X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #3 (of 5) - An uneasy truce is made between Vulcan and Havok - but the threat is a lot bigger than either think.

Powers #27 - As the victims rise, an unexpected former ally returns with a personal stake in the investigation. Also, Deena makes her own move to assist.

Messiah Complex - Week 2 Rundown

2007-11-11T02:19:00.000-05:00

Since Messiah Complex will be holding up the X-Books for the next few months, that's what we'll be looking at heavily. With New Excalibur and Exiles gone (not that I read them anyway) and Astonishing X-Men coming out once in a blue moon, the big story is the crossover. So each week, we'll take a look at what's gone down. This week, we'll be looking at both Messiah Complex (One Shot) and Uncanny X-Men #492.

THE GIST
Cerebra detects a new mutant birth, and the effect is so powerful it overloads the system. Cyclops takes Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Angel and Emma Frost to Cooperstown, Alaska to find the child, but find the town in flames. The Purifiers and Marauders both beat them to the town and caused a bloodbath of the town's children. The X-Men find little more than bodies, though they discover that the new mutant, a baby born at a local hospital, is not amongst the slain. As they leave, Predator X arrives on the scene.

As officials try to sort out the mess, the X-Men head out after rogue Acolytes, who they hope will lead them to Exodus, who has teamed with Sinister and the Marauders. Cyclops calls in X-Factor's Madrox and Rictor, using the former to go after Forge and the latter to infiltrate the Purifiers. Professor X is getting upset that Cyclops is leaving him out of the loop.

THE CASUALTY LIST
Blockbuster (Marauders) - Killed
Prism (Marauders) - Killed

The Weekly Pile

2007-11-07T16:26:00.000-05:00

Top of the Pile: New Avengers: Illuminati #5 (of 5)

The two sweetest words in the English language: de-fault! The only book in the pile this week was the fifth and final issue of New Avengers: Illuminati by Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed, and Jim Cheung. The whole series was an interesting retcon to show how the "illuminati" (Iron Man, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, Reed Richards, and Namor) have secretly had a hand in some of the major events in Marvel history. But this wasn't just a quaint little history lesson. This series, primarily the first and last issues, set the stage for Secret Invasion, which is Marvel's big to-do for next year. Skrulls, disguised as humans, have infiltrated Earth. Who are they? How long have they been here? What do they control? What's their objective? Who can be trusted? The drama's been building for years and comes to a head when the mini-series kicks off next spring.

I, for one, am excited about it. House of M, Civil War, World War Hulk, and the coming Secret Invasion have flowed together very well for the most part. All the Marvel books I'm reading have told their own good stories in between these events while still tying into the overall universe. It might not all fit together absolutely perfectly but it makes sense and it all flows right into Secret Invasion. And it doesn't seem like too much, too fast like DC's Final Crisis.

Tune in next week when the pickins will be much slim. A lot of books I'm looking forward to such as Booster Gold, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Avengers: The Initiative, and New Avengers.

The Countdown Countdown

2007-11-02T18:26:00.001-04:00

No Weeks Left...

Well kids, the time has finally arrived. DC's second weekly series, Countdown has reached the halfway point. I'd been frustrated with this book's lack of any kind of coherent story or forward momentum for quite some time. One month ago I decided that I'd give Countdown until issue #26, the exact midpoint of the series, to pick the story up and convince me to keep reading. To use one of my favorite colloquialisms, Countdown needed to shit or get off the pot.

Issue #26 has "The Turning Point" emblazoned right on the front cover. The end of issue #27 had slightly piqued my curiosity. Surely, I thought, this would be the issue where things took off as Countdown headed for the home stretch. I could not have been more wrong. This was a recap issue. A recap issue!!! Nothing has happened in this book for the last few months. There's nothing to recap! Jimmy Olsen still has powers and we still don't know how he got them. Mary Marvel is still a bitch and we still don't know why. People are still looking for Ray Palmer and we still don't know why. If you've been reading the book at all, you know these things. You don't need a recap issue to to tell you what's going on with everyone! The worst part is, it didn't even recap the things that have happened outside of Countdown that have influenced the book's story. It just told you what's been happening in the book. If you were scratching your head about something before reading issue #26's recap you still will be afterward. And to make matters even worse, a new mystery gets introduced (the black suited Superman) on top of all the other mysteries in Countdown that haven't been explored in the least.

And the last thing, the final nail in the coffin: Jason Todd's betrayal wasn't real. The one thing to come along in this book and make me think that it might be worth sticking around to see how it turns out was a sham. A ruse. A trick. A bit of tomfoolery on the part of Bob the Monitor. Turns out Jason Todd only pretended to shoot Donna Troy in the face and only pretended to join up with Monarch so the "Challengers" could get away. So they could run off to another universe and continue their search for Ray Palmer. The same search that's been fruitless and boring for weeks on end. Huzzah.

So, that's it. I'm done. I'm out. Goodbye. Farewell. Amen. The story may eventually pick up at some point in the second half but I won't be around to see it. There have just been too many weeks of the same crap, killing time, and leaving out important elements of the story. I'm definitely not buying every book DC puts out, I'm not going to go do research on the internet every week to find out what's going on, and I can't just accept it.

DC will no longer get my $2.99 a week for this book.

The Weekly Pile

2007-10-31T18:00:00.000-04:00

Top of the Pile: Daredevil Annual #1

Last week's Top of the Pile was Daredevil #101, and this week Ed Brubaker puts out another gem in Daredevil Annual #1. Matt Murdock gets visited by Carlos LaMuerto (a.k.a. The Black Tarantula), just released from prison and looking to turn his life around. Murdock not only gives LaMuerto a job at his law firm but enlists his help in costume as Black Tarantula. Tarantula tries to walk the perfectly straight & narrow but ultimately realizes that he doesn't have the patience to do things Daredevil's way. He returns to his old ways, only this time as a force of good instead of evil.

The Rest of the Pile

Countdown #26 - See The Countdown Countdown.

Ultimate Power #8 - The first seven issues of this title were written by Brian Michael Bendis. This issue was written by Jeph Loeb. Odd.

The Countdown Countdown

2007-10-24T18:33:00.000-04:00

One Week Left...

Another week on the Countdown, another week of the stories casually milling around. (Jimmy Olsen is still deciding whether or not to go with Forager, even though it appears that was decided last week.) Well, that's not entirely true. Some of the stories leap forward to another chapter with little or no explanation. (The confrontation between Mary Marvel and Shadowpact that was set up in the last issue is already pretty much over by the time we get to it in this issue.) There's also the continued trend of characters dropping by to say hi and having no real impact on the story. (Two-face, anyone?) There was one thing that stood out in this issue, though: Jason Todd's turn. Him turning his back on his travel buddies to join Monarch's army was an actual exciting twist that came out of nowhere. And not the cheap, illogical "out of nowhere" that a lot of other things in this book have come from. Could this be the thing that saves the book for me? The follow up had better be good since next week is their last chance.

The Weekly Pile

2007-10-24T17:22:00.000-04:00

Top of the Pile: Daredevil #101

This book is like Law & Order with a superhero as the main character. The two sides of the book (the stuff in the courtroom and the stuff in the tights) go together so well because Matt Murdock has a strong desire to live both sides of his life. It's not like Batman, where Bruce Wayne is just a public face he puts on. Both characters seem real and substantial. You can chalk all that up to Ed Brubaker being one of the best writers in comics today.

The Rest of the Pile

Countdown #27 - See The Countdown Countdown

Ultimate Spider-Man #115 - As much as Mark Bagley became synonymous with this book after one hundred and ten consecutive issues, I gotta say I like Stuart Immonen's work even more.

Walking Dead #43 - After last month's issue set the stage for the confrontation between the survivors and the people from Woodbury, it seemed kind of a let down for this to be a fill-in issue that didn't advance the story. But that's not to say that this issue was bad. It gave some excellent backstory for The Governor, one of the post despicable villains to come along in years.

The Countdown Countdown

2007-10-21T17:19:00.000-04:00

Two Weeks Left...

This week's Countdown #28 was actually a huge improvement over the previous week's, but that's not saying much. Aside from a small child using "I'll be your bestest buddy" to stop a crazed Brother Eye, there wasn't much to insult the intelligence like last week's installment. There was even some semblance of a couple stories actually starting to inch forward with Shadowpact looking to take down Mary Marvel and Jimmy Olsen finally having a purpose in investigating the deaths of the New Gods. But I have to say these new developments feel like part three of a story. Part one took place in the first few weeks of Countdown but we never got part two. How is Jimmy Olsen ready to go for a big time super hero mission when we don't even know why or how he has powers yet?

Could we really be leaving the Newsboy Legion behind so soon after meeting them? Like the Jokester and the majority of the characters from the other Earths, they just seemed to pop their heads up and say "Hi, we're in this book." and then fade away.

And would it kill DC give the reader a little heads up on whats been going on in the DCU between issues of Countdown? Marvel uses recap pages at the beginning of many of their books that make it possible to know what's going on in the event that you missed an issue. If ever a book screamed for that feature, it's Countdown. At the very least and check list of books you should read before reading this week's issue would help immensely. Then you wouldn't be spoiled on things like Big Barda's death in Death of the New Gods #1.

Countdown Advice

2007-10-17T21:26:00.000-04:00

Unlike my distinguished colleague here at Comicdom Wrecks, I am enjoying the series. Don't get me wrong, I still think it should not have been done, but I'm not gonna stop buying it. Being a weekly series, it is getting compared to 52, but this is an unfair comparison. 52 was a stand alone series, that anyone could pick up and read. Countdown is not. Countdown was not advertised as such. It was advertised as the "spine" of the DCU, meaning that it was going to tie-in to everything. With that being said, there are 3 ways for someone to enjoy Countdown.

1) Buy every book DC puts out. This the most expensive and time-consuming of the ways to enjoy Countdown. If you buy everything, then you are guaranteed of not missing anything.

2) Find spoilers for the tie-in books. Somewhere, someone online is putting up spoilers for what has happened in the tie-in books. It should be DC, but unfortunately, they are not. Not sure why. They did it for Countdown to Infinite Crisis, and Infinite Crisis. But the message boards on DC's site probably have something. Or there's always Wikipedia.

3) Just accept it. By "just accept it," I mean that just accept that there are a ton of books that are connected to Countdown, and accept that what has happened between issues has happened.

Now, if you can't do any of these 3, then just don't read Countdown. All it will bring you is frustration.

The Weekly Pile

2007-10-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

The Top of the Pile

Justice League of America #14 -4 out of 5- by Dwyane McDuffie & Ed Benes

Dwayne McDuffie's "Unlimited" story continues. This issue seemed more like an issue of Superman or Action Comics, than JLA. Which isn't really a bad thing. I just make the comparison because the issue is driven by the drama between Superman and Luthor. Something I haven't seen enough of in the Superman titles. But the Superman books are a rant for another day. Back to the League. I like the teaming of Black Lightning and Superman in this issue. I think it's a good thing for a team book like this to pair the minor characters with the major ones. But more importantly, to make them have just as much of a positive role in the action as the major players. This is important to building up the lesser known characters, so that one day, the Big 3 (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) may be able to leave the book.

There's nothing complex about McDuffie's writing. It's just enjoyable. It was also nice having Ed Benes back to draw the issue. However, I don't think he's going to be around much longer. Thought I saw someone else solicited for the next story arc.

Rest of the Pile

Countdown #28 -3 out of 5- by Tony Bedard & Al Barrionuevo
See future article.

The Weekly Pile

2007-10-17T20:31:00.000-04:00

Top of the Pile: Mighty Avengers #5

It's a shame this book has been so delayed. With the extended periods between issues it's hard to keep up any kind of storytelling pace. The most you can hope for, aside from the creators getting their asses in gear and putting the book out on time, is that the issue is good when it does come out. Mighty Avengers comes through in that department.

Bendis' decent drama and snappy dialog always make his books an entertaining read. His use of random thought bubbles is a great way to give an extra dimension to the characters without having to delve into a lot of expository writing. Frank Cho's art continues to look fantastic and it's sad to know he's the reason the book's so delayed.

The Rest of the Pile

Captain America #31 - This book was very close to being the Top this week. Ed Brubaker continues to craft a compelling story even though the title character's been dead for more than six months.

Captain America: The Chosen #3 - Continuing the story of an aging Cap searching for his replacement.

Countdown #28 - See this week's Countdown Countdown

JLA #14 - The Injustice League, a large gathering of villains who seem to have gotten together just to get together. This may sound weird, but it reads more like a cartoon than a comic book.

Marvel Zombies 2 #1 - Nothing special here, just the same gory fun as the first series. Robert Kirkman continues to be one of my favorite writers.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #47 - I'm torn about this book. It hasn't been bad, it just hasn't been interesting.

Wolverine: Origins #18 - Wolverine fights Nazis with Captain America, Bucky, and a young Nick Fury.

The Countdown Countdown

2007-10-15T20:51:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I would only be giving DC's Countdown four more weeks to convince me to keep reading. For those four issues, I'll be posting a special review of them that I'm calling The Countdown Countdown. Enjoy.

Three More Weeks...

Let's see...a lot of other stuff has gone on with this series' characters since the last issue, so I'm kind of at a loss for some of it... I can barely handle the excitement when Jimmy Olsen teams up with the Newsboy Legion, who claim that they recognized "their old pal" Jimmy as Mr. Action even though his costume features a mask. I'm only bringing that up because it makes Olsen and everyone else look like an idiot for not picking up on Superman's secret identity when his costume is a pair of glasses...Piper & Trickster wanted for murder of one of the world's most beloved heroes, waltz into a diner during the day, in costume and claim to have passed themselves off as singing telegram guys...The Jokester dies after serving his purpose of, um, well nothing really. He was just sort of there to crack wise for a couple weeks.

Not only did nothing substantial happen, but the book was filled with enough flawed internal logic to choke an elephant. Better luck next week.