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Post by The Doctor on May 8, 2009 10:53:24 GMT
GAH.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 8, 2009 11:21:50 GMT
Still not as bad as Tit Cow er I mean Top Cow.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on May 10, 2009 16:28:48 GMT
The Muppet Show #1: Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Genuinely funny (I laughed out loud several times), packed with content. The perfect all-ages comic. It doesn't talk down to kids, and has a fine mix of visual gags, dialogue gags and loads of reading. Best comic I have read thus far this year. Can't recommend it highly enough. I want more of this and I want it now.
Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #2: I'm going to have to read this again, as the bullfighting stuff sailed way over my head. I know there's some kind of metaphor going on here, but I haven't got it yet!
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on May 10, 2009 19:39:38 GMT
Fin Fang 4 Return!: A humour comic by Scott Gray and Roger Langridge in which former Marvel monsters try to lead normal lives. Brilliant stuff, very funny. Choice line: "I closed my eyes and thought of Nelson Mandela, mother..." Good value for your $3.99: 5 new stories and 1 reprint. Plenty of reading. Hurray! More of this, please.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on May 14, 2009 19:01:05 GMT
Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1: Not bad, if a bit inconsequential. I did like the Thor frog knock-off.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 14, 2009 19:29:06 GMT
My copy of Fin Fang 4 Return arrived this morning. Top notch stuff. I second your cry for more of this Ralph.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 17, 2009 21:00:04 GMT
Secret Warriors 4 Well this didn't work for me quite as much as the other three issues did but there's some good stuff in there. Were those LMD's in Fury's office - in which case what's going on with the open chested one with what looks like a cockpit inside (reminded me of the Gremlin's Titanium Man in Avengers vs X-Men) We see one of Fury's other butterflies - in the care of Gateway - and learn Nick tried to recruit him for something before. But most of the issue concerns Nick's trip to see Dum Dum and a few other former colleagues - in retrospect I should have guessed what the first part of HC PMC stood for when it appeared in the first issue - Howling Commando Private Military Contractor ! Nice use of the back up material from there in this issue with both this and the new Secret Warrior being listed
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Post by legios on May 17, 2009 22:11:41 GMT
I have picked up Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers#1. Not bad. It isn't exactly going to set the world afire but it does what it does in reasonably amusing style. A somewhat offbeat all-ages title, it works well for what it is. Throg - the Frog of Thunder is clearly the star of proceedings though. There is just something wonderfully absurd about a frog who possess the power of Thor - complete with a frog sized hammer, cape and wing-ed helmet.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 28, 2009 10:36:13 GMT
Ex Machina 42 Mitch has done something he's trying to cover up - what ? Mixed in we've gt flashbacks to the talk to the animals guy and some current animal related killings.
NEW AVENGERS: THE REUNION #3 Clint's not taken the Divorce thing well. But I get the feeling that this LS doesn't matter as they'll be back together as a couple by the end so it's all a glorious irrelevance. Come back to find out how wrong I am.
Dark Reign Young Avengers 1 A new team of young "Superheroes" based round old Avengers villains names and MOs has shown up. The YA want to know why they've borrowed their name. It read well, best comic I've read from Cornell (didn't like Captain Britain)
UNCANNY X-MEN #510 Now this has had a bit of a slagging on line but I rather liked it. Yes it's a big fight, and yes it does highlight lots of the problems with X-Men at the mo (far too big a cast most of whom you can't give two hoots about and an artist who's not the greatest on the planet - look at the panels with Cukoos). But it's a decent fight, the plot is advanced and you get some inkling as to why the villains are doing this.
X-Factor 43 So is it carefully organised that while X-Force are cavorting in the future tying up a major loose end of Messiah Complex one of X-Factor is in a different future dealing with the other ? Or a coincidnce. I can't decide if it's good or bad. Either way X-Factor is great, one of the two high points of the X-Universe at the mo doing something different.
Cable 14 When bringing up a child it's always important to warn them that you had a near identical evil clone running around out there. Cos you never know when they might come back. And you wouldn't want the child getting confused would you ? D'OH ! And that alone justifies bringing Stryfe back just so Hope can get it so wrong.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 28, 2009 12:32:19 GMT
X-Men Forever: Alpha
The lead off to the new Chris Claremont/Tom Grummett series.
It's almost all reprint as it contains adjectiveless X-Men issues 1-3 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Though there are two previews of the X-Men Forever series at the end.
Now it's easy to find online the backstory as to why CC left the X-Men when he did and the tensions behind the scenes between him, Bob Harras and Jim Lee regarding the direction of the series so I won't dwell on that.
So what do we get. We get what ostensibly should have been the very last Magneto story. It reads like that from start to finish, there is an inevitability about his fate and to be honest the minute Claremont and Byrne starting shifting him from villian to misguided "hero" the only way the character should have ended was to die at some point. After this story only Grant Morrison actually did anything of real interest with the character.
The art from Lee and Williams is pretty darned good. I know a lot of people dislike it, but I loved it back then and still enjoy it now. I'd have to ask how much of the distate towards this art is actually down to Lee/Williams as it is to the endless stream of imitators they have spawned over the years. The X-Men teams are split up into the blue and gold teams (although not named as such till X-Men 5). In this era the X-office wisely assigned Wolverine to one team - this one. Oh how times change.
The book while embedded in continuity does it's best to actually explain things. I know the X-books get lambasted for that a lot, but Claremont usually references the events in such a way you understand and follow things without missing out.
Now on to the new material.
It's in two bits. The first is the first six pages of X-Men Forever 1 and starts to hammer home the changes that Claremont has in mind. Gambit has a different name, Kurt and Kitty are in the Mansion and an old enemy returns. The second preview is a two page flash-foward sequence which I assume also happens in X-Men Forever 1. I shan't spoilt it but it's a good cliffhanger and makes me want to pick up the book.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 28, 2009 13:43:01 GMT
X-Men Forever: Alpha The lead off to the new Chris Claremont/Tom Grummett series. It's almost all reprint as it contains adjectiveless X-Men issues 1-3 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Though there are two previews of the X-Men Forever series at the end. Now it's easy to find online the backstory as to why CC left the X-Men when he did and the tensions behind the scenes between him, Bob Harras and Jim Lee regarding the direction of the series so I won't dwell on that. Excelent column on the subject in Comic Book Legends RevealedI love the Lee art too, best thing to happen to the X-Men in years and I always feel Claremon fires better opposite a strong artist. But the best Lee X-Men stuff was done in Uncanny leading up to this. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 28, 2009 13:44:04 GMT
(and this may be a hangable offence) I think Portacio's art on X-Factor was even better.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 28, 2009 14:31:58 GMT
(and this may be a hangable offence) I think Portacio's art on X-Factor was even better. I loved the last few issues of X-Factor he did. I think his work on Uncanny wasn't quite as strong. Andy |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 28, 2009 14:34:25 GMT
X-Men Forever: Alpha The lead off to the new Chris Claremont/Tom Grummett series. It's almost all reprint as it contains adjectiveless X-Men issues 1-3 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Though there are two previews of the X-Men Forever series at the end. Now it's easy to find online the backstory as to why CC left the X-Men when he did and the tensions behind the scenes between him, Bob Harras and Jim Lee regarding the direction of the series so I won't dwell on that. Excelent column on the subject in Comic Book Legends RevealedI love the Lee art too, best thing to happen to the X-Men in years and I always feel Claremon fires better opposite a strong artist. But the best Lee X-Men stuff was done in Uncanny leading up to this. I remember in 92 or maybe 93 he did an interview with Comics World or whatever that UK comics mag was called and outlined his plans. Which I liked the sound of. Yeah I think Uncanny suffered with Marc Silvestri's art to be honest. JRJR was such a strong storyteller and had come on in leaps and bounds over his tenure on the book. The fact that Silvestri was constantly having fill-ins, or at least that was how it felt hurt the book I thought. Andy |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 28, 2009 15:58:42 GMT
(and this may be a hangable offence) I think Portacio's art on X-Factor was even better. I loved the last few issues of X-Factor he did. I think his work on Uncanny wasn't quite as strong. Andy Definitely not. I think we're singing from the same hymm sheet here. |
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Post by legios on May 28, 2009 20:51:40 GMT
I picked up X-Men Forever: Alpha myself, it represents a good opportunity to reevaluate X-Men# 1 -3 after a good many years, if nothing else.
They read quite well when assembled together, and they do have a rather nice sense of finality. Not an ending of things, but a distinct ending of an era. As Andy says, by this point the only logical thing that you could do with Magneto was kill him. After this point when he was brought back he really seemed an irrelevancy - one of the things I was please to see Morrison later come out and state.
I remember feeling at the time I prefered Wilce Portacio as an artist, but that his later work didn't feel like it was quite living up to his turn on X-Factor. As to the Lee/Williams art here I don't really dislike it. Not all of it really works for me, some of it feels a little too posed and artificial in places but there is a nice dynamic feeling to the action sequences. I don't really dislike it perse, as dislike the trend that it inspired. But I can't really hold its imitators against it, that wouldn't be in any respect fair.
As to the two preview sections, I felt that they were a little bit variable - the standing around talking one didn't really do much for me, but I did think that the Wolverine one was decent and ended on a fairly good cliffhanger. On the strength of this I might give the series a go when it starts up. Now that I am no longer buying any US comics in single issue format I have room in the budget for one at least.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on May 28, 2009 20:53:11 GMT
Star Trek Comic #1: Pretty decent. Reprints first two issues of the 'Countdown' story from IDW, but at half the price it would cost for two US issues and printed on larger paper. Not a bad story, giving some much needed background to the rather shallow 2009 film. Throw in ten million free stickers and some filler features and not a bad package.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 28, 2009 21:13:21 GMT
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Century: 1910
Whew, bit of a long title. This arrived today as well, after some delays. I thoroughly enjoyed this, even if a few of the references went over my head, though I did spot Popeye in a background panel. It's an excellent, substantial read with a text story in the back as well. Kevin O'Neill's art is at it's anarchic best and what amuses me is that he does it while using a very traditional approach to panel layouts. A lesser artist would use non standard panel layouts to convey some of the craziness whereas he can do it with just his lines alone.
The fact that this and X-Men Forever Alpha have been my two most recent non TF comics it has got me thinking more about how a denser heavier read on a less frequent basis really would be something to see from most comic publishers. Imagine a 96 page Batman tome every three months with a complete story? More satisfying that the dribs and drabs of the ever more pathetic monthly titles.
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 28, 2009 21:17:31 GMT
How many pages were Marvel's Unlimited series when they ran ? There again I think there's 3 good issues of X-Men Unlimited (1, 3 and whichever one has the Nightcrawler/Rogue/Mystique story in) and that's it.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 28, 2009 21:22:02 GMT
64 pages as I recall.
The Nightcrawler/Mystique/Rogue one was issue 4 iirc. Terrible art though. Richard Bennet I think was responsible.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on May 31, 2009 11:06:25 GMT
Terminator Salvation Comic #1: Okayyyyyyyyyyy, 68 pages but only 15 of them have a comic strip on them! What?! It's not even a full story but a bit of an IDW issue in which not much happens. Kids looking for hot robot action are instead treated to grey people in grey rooms talking to each other on computers. Hmmm. The rest of the mag is padded out with various features. Fans of 'robot round-up' from ye olde Marvel TF UK will be overjoyed to see it back, albeit in a different name! But, yeah, not good value for money. Compare this to Titan's other recent launch, Star Trek Comic, also 68 pages but with 44 pages of comic. Poor. I won't be back.
Starcraft #1: I have no idea what Starcraft is. It's either a card game or video game or summat. Anyway, picked up because I could not resist any comic which has the mind-boggling combination of Keith Giffen and Simon Furman in the writing credits! Readable, but I think you really need to be a pre-existing fan of whatever the Starcraft franchise is to get it.
X-Men Forever Alpha: Big chunk of the only three 90's x-men comics I want. Excellent repro and good value. Really enjoyed it. If only all x-men comics were as accessable as this. I remember these issues back from the day, before it degenerated into nonsense.
Aliens #1: This is Dark Horse's relaunch of the title. Unusually, there's some promo effort on this: a reprint of the FCBD day issue with different cover and a poster were thrown in too.
For most of the issue it read like a pretty bland generic SF comic, then it suddenly veers off in a completely different direction with a truly shocking and surprising moment. Yeah, I want to know what happens next.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 31, 2009 12:55:53 GMT
When did Lee's uncanny issues come out ? They're worth having.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 6, 2009 11:21:38 GMT
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 8, 2009 18:19:53 GMT
On a whim, I picked up a Commando from a newsstand yesterday for the first time in ages. Oh, it was splendid tosh. A British chap had to stop a fiendish German plan to build a big silly super-gun! He managed it in time for tea and sandwiches too! Actung! Nine! AAAARRRRRGGGH!! Schnell!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 13, 2009 10:33:11 GMT
UNCANNY X-MEN #510 Now this has had a bit of a slagging on line but I rather liked it. Yes it's a big fight, and yes it does highlight lots of the problems with X-Men at the mo (far too big a cast most of whom you can't give two hoots about and an artist who's not the greatest on the planet - look at the panels with Cukoos). But it's a decent fight, the plot is advanced and you get some inkling as to why the villains are doing this. Need to get this out of the way UNCANNY X-MEN #511 So they took a lock of Jean's hair right ? Now to me that says "clone me a new body" - surely well within Spiral's ability ? No. They want it to cast a magic spell to detect where Jean's body is buried. Deary me. Wouldn't checking the burial plot at the Mansion be the first place you'd look ? Still Psylocke's back from her exile at the hands of Claremont setting her up to replace the White Queen when everything goes Tango Ultra shortly. Though I though Psylocke was a telepath and not a telekinetic. Why divide the X-Men up into a boys team and a girls team ? Silly. Nice scene with the Beast saying he's getting fed up with all the secrets. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 13, 2009 10:33:28 GMT
(more to follow - picked up eight issues this week)
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 13, 2009 17:44:05 GMT
Picked up some more Commando issues. Oh, they are an absolute hoot! Best of all has been Warrior Tradition, featuring the immortal line: "All wars are basically sheep stealing - just on a larger scale", delivered by a mad Scottish bastard with an eye patch who wants to only kill and is terribly disappointed in his progeny wanting to read books and things. For there is a Clan feast every 25 years and every McCrane must KILL!
Star Trek Comic #2: Hmmm, only one reprint issue this time. Booo. Countdown finishes next issue. I'm curious to see how it ends. I doubt I'll bother with this past then though, unless they reprint some old PAD stuff.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 13, 2009 21:56:19 GMT
NEW AVENGERS: THE REUNION #3 Clint's not taken the Divorce thing well. But I get the feeling that this LS doesn't matter as they'll be back together as a couple by the end so it's all a glorious irrelevance. Come back to find out how wrong I am. And push that reset button ! DARK AVENGERS #5 Norman goes to do an interview. Fortunately (for him) Atlantis invades before the end. MIGHTY AVENGERS #25 To undo what Jocasta did they need something from Reed Richards but Reed's being a g!t so they're gonna invade the Baxter Building. NEW AVENGERS #53 I laughed soooo much when the new Sourcer Supreme stood revealed. X-FORCE #15 Get to the end of the crossover so we can get on with the real stuff. X-MEN: LEGACY #224 Wrapping up the Rogue/Danger stuff. Interesting reading this straight after Mighty Avengers and thinking Danger = Jocasta. Not sure I understood all the stuff about Rogue's powers but she seems to have come out with some control. A tenner says that'll be gone by the end of next year. X-FACTOR #44 Great stuff as ever though they seem to have forgotton to check in with Rictor &Strong Guy this issue ! |
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Post by Jaymz on Jun 14, 2009 12:24:01 GMT
Still Psylocke's back from her exile at the hands of Claremont setting her up to replace the White Queen when everything goes Tango Ultra shortly. Though I though Psylocke was a telepath and not a telekinetic. Last I remember was Psylocke not being able to use her telepath powers otherwise the Shadow King would get free. It was after that that her telekinetic powers appeared [with no explanation]. And I was hoping that this storyarc would end in Psylocke getting her real body back. Also, the artwork is terrible, the sooner they get rid of Land, the better. NEW AVENGERS #53 I laughed soooo much when the new Sourcer Supreme stood revealed. Yeah, and why is he talking like that? I thought he was from the same place as Gambit. |
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 14, 2009 16:50:21 GMT
Feel free to put under a spoiler tage, but who is the new Sorcerer Supreme?
-Ralph
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