Random Thoughts! (March 9, 2010)
Random thought! the sun is but one of my mortal enemies. It’s random thoughts time! Get excited!
Link thought! Quickie Reviews and Michelle’s Covers Thoughts (March 3 2010) (my girlfriend shares her thoughts on covers… because people love it when ‘outsiders’ do stuff like that, right?). High Road/Low Road on Undertaker/Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania (I’m torn on this match, I really am…). Wrestling 4Rs including my write-up of the March 4 TNA Impact (and, of course, now Impact is on Monday nights at the same time as Raw… which fucks up my watching of Raw and works against the writing-heavy first half of my week usually… thanks, TNA). Wrestler of the Week (only three of these left before the year five champ is crowned and it’s a tight race between CM Punk and AJ Styles). The Splash Page Podcast episode 7.1 (various comics and a cliffhanger!). The Splash Page Podcast episode 7.2 (cliffhanger no longer hanging and more comics!). Art Discussion Month 2010 continues daily (I completed the Hellblazer bunch and am now 3/4s of the way through the Apparat Singles Club, which means Global Frequency is almost here).
Random thought! saying that a hero is great because he has the best villains doesn’t make me want to read a comic about him, it just makes me wish those villains were paired with an interesting hero he doesn’t need great villains to be worth reading about. a comic with an awesome hero and awesome villains is what I want.
Random thought! I didn’t take advantage of that Amazon.com sale for a variety of reasons… okay, only one: money. Though, I was tempted with that Marshal Law omnibus… though, I see that Amazon has it listed as coming out later in the month, but top Shelf says it’s coming out in 2011. So, I’m thinking orders for that one probably won’t get filled at that price with plenty of time to cancel before it comes out.
Random thought! After talking about it with Tim, I do have an odd desire to go back and (re)read some of those mid-90s Marvel novels and short story collections. Diane Duane did a Spider-Man trilogy (plus an X-Men book), Peter David wrote a Hulk one, I also remember some Daredevil and X-Men ones along with the various ‘Ultimate’ books… those were what the short story collections were called, I believe. Sitting in a closet in my parents’ house is a copy of Ultimate X-Men. One of the odder releases from that period had to be the Silver Surfer collection. Though, I imagine that’s a character that would work well in prose short stories, actually.
Random thought! Rewatched the first season of Frisky Dingo on DVD this weekend and I have to ask: great superhero story or greatest superhero story? Yeah. Boosh.
Random thought! also watched this weekend: Old School, which I’ve seen numerous times and never rises above mediocre. that flick needed something else. Like maybe seeing the frat in action beyond one party or something. The Taking of Pelham 123, which is a decent movie. Cassandra’s Dream, which is better than Match Point as Woody Allen took his examination of what happens when someone kills someone else to a whole other level… fantastic. The Informers, which adapts Bret Easton Ellis’s short story collection and doesn’t work. by intermingling the stories as it does, it tries to add up to something more, but winds up with a whole that’s far less. the meaningless/lack of plot in the stories works taken one at a time, but not mixed together chronologically. Some solid performances, but half of the cast were doing American Psycho Christian Bale impressions. it did put me in the mood to reread the book (and maybe Less than Zero, too, but I think I’ll leave that until closer to June when Imperial Bedrooms comes out). I also caught the first episodes of Hiccups and Dan for Mayor, two new sitcoms featuring people from Corner Gas. Hiccups is actually a Brent Butt show (he created/wrote it) with his wife, Nancy Robertson (Wanda) as the star, and it’s funny in a madcap insane way. Dan for Mayor stars Fred Ewanuick and never gets going, though the end of the episode almost makes me want to see what happens next.
Random thought! have reread the first half of Preludes and Nocturnes, the first Sandman trade, and it’s good. nothing that’s blown me away yet, but it’s enjoyable. I will keep you all posted as I progress in the reread.
Random thought! Oh yeah, Cop Out wasn’t too bad. I’ve seen better buddy cop movies, but this one worked mostly because Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan had good chemistry and seemed to be having fun a lot of the time. Definitely a movie that was better than the trailers/ads made it out to seem since the comedy was a little more organic and situation-specific than can be gotten across without context in quick-cuts. Not fantastic, but something that could make for a good rental when it’s out on DVD.
Random thought! Greek Street is slowly turning itself around and looks like it will become a good book, while The Unwritten continues to sink… tomorrow’s issue will be a make it/break it one with me, I think.
Random thought! the overexposure of Deadpool seems odd to me because I’ve always thought of Deadpool as I think of key lime pie: fantastic in small doses on rare occasions, but pure fucking shit if you try to have too much of it too often.
Random thought! I realised yesterday that I have absolutely no affinity for Wolverine as a character. I’ve always suspected that, but it’s been confirmed. I don’t dislike the character, I just don’t care.
Random thought! it could have been worse: Prometheus could have been written as skilled as he’s supposed to be and he could have just killed all of the heroes.
Random thought! J. Michael Straczynski on Superman and Wonder Woman… I don’t know what to think. JMS can deliver good writing, but even the comics work of his that I’ve liked hasn’t been the sort I’d rate too highly. It’s good, maybe very good at rare times… his best work (from what I’ve read), Rising Stars was held back by him having far to say than could be contained by the comic, limited by artists and page counts. he seems like he functions best when given a larger platform like the five years of Babylon 5 where there’s 22 44-minute episodes per season and lots of time to flesh out numerous characters, giving 6-10 of them very good stories over the course of the series.
Random thought! as JMS will admit, he has a habit of asking questions and, sometimes, that leads to good stories, but, sometimes, it’s asking questions that aren’t required or contain answers that don’t add anything. his recent Joker/Atom issue of The Brave and the Bold being a good example. then again, his retconning of Loki’s origin was fantastic. the Spider-Totem stuff… eh… not exactly my bag. Hit or miss.
Random thought! I do not understanding the thinking behind the ‘evolution’ of Noh-Varr from Marvel Boy to the recent back-up story in Ms. Marvel #50 where it’s not the same character. At all. It’s almost impressive how it happened, but, fuck, way to turn a cool, different character into something that’s completely mediocre and boring.
Random thought! I would play the shit out of this suggested Invisibles video game (#5)…
Random thought! and, so, I leave you to watch the Tuesday afternoon replay of Monday Night Raw since I watched Impact last night for the 4Rs…
Random Comments! Wherein I respond to comments chosen by me and possibly edited to suit my needs. if you don’t see your comment here, that’s only because you said stupid, pointless things, and you should really stop doing that.
Bill Reed said: I disagree. I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think one responsibility necessarily trumps another with Spider-Man. it doesn’t mean Peter wouldn’t be wracked with guilt, fighting crime and risking his untimely demise even though he has an infant at home who needs him, but that’s why he’s Spider-Man. his origin revolves around inaction in the face of crime. he can never stop being Spider-Man. (Is this Spidey mini a new prequel to Spider-Girl? I wonder.)
I can’t begin to describe how much I hated [The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]. it took over a month to get through, I think, in a Novel class in college; we were all sick of it. I know, I know, they were making up the concept of “novel” as they went along, but man. it drove me insane. Maybe I should try it again.
Yep. An English degree doubles as a bullshit degree. It’s a B.a. in B.S. I’ve done the same, and I know many others who did. It’s a marvelous thing to witness in action. I was dozing off in class one day, the professor called me out and told me to discuss something, I looked down, read a sentence, tossed off some insightful remarks, and went back to dozing off. a winner was me. (I couldn’t help it, dammit, it was 8 in the morning. no one should be awake at 8 in the morning.) sure, it’s unhealthy to fake your way through everything, but I found a lot of great books in my English studies career. and I also skimmed or skipped a lot of books I couldn’t be arsed with. it happens.
When Peter Parker becomes an actual adult, Spider-Man needs to end because that life is an extension of his childhood. It’s a hero’s journey from childhood to adulthood and part of being an adult would be placing his personal responsibilities at the forefront. That’s why he can’t get married and have kids: it would end the story. That’s his endpoint. “Spider-Man: the End” is just he gets married and has a kid. no more Spider-Man.
I’m enjoying Tristram Shandy, but I can see why it would cause people to hate it. This is my second attempt to read it and I’m sticking it through. the sad thing is that it’s very clever, but the execution is boring in a lot of places.
In uni, I was usually taking three English classes and two poli-sci classes at any given moment, so it just wasn’t possible to read everything — nor did they expect me to. it was just a matter of picking and choosing which things to read, paying attention, and using your brains to not let on when you hadn’t read anything. I found having to discuss works I hadn’t read made me better at discussing things I had read since it made me more creative and imaginative… and able to squeeze a lot of information out of what little I had read.
Joe H said: I love your idea for the X-Men and building a new culture/government/etc, but it has some problems: these cultures, lifestyles, etc. don’t develop overnight in terms of the Marvel timeline and such the X-Men would have to move “faster” in time than the rest of the MU. Or else they’d be expecting us to believe that these elements DID happen over night. Maybe Morrison did something similar, but the genius thing he did was instead of show the culture grow, he just introduced it as if it was already there but the mainstream (and in turn the reader) only just now became aware of the growth, expansion, popularity of the mutant culture. and as mentioned in that article of Greg’s you posted a link to, superheroes barely ever manage running a government for long.
The X-Men as a concept are so limited by their shared universe connections — and the desire to keep the characters relatively static for trademark purposes. Despite changes in settings and teams, not many characters have radically changed or grown, which is ironic about a book about evolution and change. There’s a lot of potential to really branch out and explore very interesting ideas. that was one of the things that pissed me off about Millar’s Ultimate X-Men run: there were so many hints at the characters breaking free from the boring us/them dynamic of Xavier and Magneto, but it never happened. Can’t fight the status quo in superhero comics.
Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! said: Tristram Shandy is excellent stuff; I was surprised at how much of today’s humor it anticipates. Sterne was basically doing 18th century metafiction jokes.
Oh, definitely. It’s amazing how ahead of his time he was. Or how behind everyone else was depending on how you want to look at it.
FunkyGreenJerusalem said: Even weirder… I enjoyed Wildcats V2, more than 3.0. Casey and Phillips take on this group of people, who had banded together to fight a threat that was now gone, trying to find something to do with their lives, and still only hanging out with each other despite not really having anything in common… was fantastic.Conceptually, 3.0 is a way more interesting book, but V2 was just better in my eyes. Possibly because having read the book on and off in their earlier adventures, I enjoyed seeing a writer take characters who clearly weren’t suited to being forced to grow up and be ‘mature’, grow up and be mature, and part of their character arcs was how much they weren’t enjoying it, or suited to it.
[...] that would just highlight that Black Summer isn’t very good!
Volume two is a lot better than Version 3.0, but the latter gets more notice. Despite some interesting ideas, Version 3.0 is actually pretty conventional in its focus on action stories. the corporate intigue stuff takes a back seat most of the time, whereas volume two was a fantastic examination of these former soldiers as they try to find new lives without a mission, tied together by some concept of family that they can’t escape. it was far more radical than Version 3.0, I think.
Black Summer is good. I love the final issue. It’s more of an argument than a strong narrative, something for someone to pick up on and use in crafting their own story.
Chris Walters said: I’ve always thought Sandman worked better whenever it was a series of standalone issues about the Endless interacting with people throughout history than when it tried to tell an actual ongoing story. Although I generally found the story arcs to be intriguing (though I definitely didn’t like all of them), I thought the self-contained stories like Dream’s relationship with Shakespeare or Death visiting Element Girl or the story of Joshua Abraham Norton were much more interesting and fun to read.
I found the whole thing very hit or miss. Some storyarcs were good, some weren’t. Some stand-alones were good, some weren’t. Not too much of it really blew me away, though. even the very good stories were few and far between from what I can remember. We’ll see when I reread what I’ve got.
Rome said: About new Avengers; It’s good to have Immonen back on track with Bendis.. they are doing a good job now, and I hope they keep the “street”-level vibe of the first volume.. At least that’s how I see Cage working, because as much as I like the character, he is destined to be that “you-can-count-to-kick-the-bad-guy’s-ass-without-being-in-the-frontline” kind of character..
A street-level urban Avengers group to the global, big supervillain group would be good. and I’m with you on Cage. Bendis has worked hard to make that character a central figure in the Avengers and despite people scoffing, I think he’ll be around for a while. he kind of reminds me of the Thing in that ‘regular guy that will always fight for what matters’ way. I could see the two of them getting along and am looking forward to them interacting in the new book. Two new Yorkers that will fight like hell to defend their friends and family and innocent people.
Layne said: Bernard’s rink was very strong on strategy but poor on actual execution through the whole round Robin; if they had come up against an aggressive team early on, I doubt they would have gotten very far.
Chad: I’m not sure what sort of stuff you dig, but maybe we can work out some sort of trade!
The execution was awful in the last couple of games. I couldn’t believe it. and, yeah, shoot me an e-mail (via my blog) and we can work something out.
Dan Felty said: I didn’t care for 1602 at all. There was a whole lot of set-up and winks to the audience. it felt like all concept.
I’ll take anybody’s Sandman trades off their hands if they’re not wanted (for real!).
I’ll keep that in mind, Dan. Marvel 1602 was a bit too cutesy, but if you accept that that’s all it was trying to be, it’s a lot easier to take.
Mike Trevors said: Chad, what didn’t you like about Sandman? Was it just not your thing or did you actually feet like it wasn’t “good comics”? even though it’s been hyped beyond belief, I still look at Sandman and see some of the greatest stories ever told in comics form.
I love this whole “8 smartest people” because it shows how utterly ridiculous logic is in the superhero world (or, more importantly I guess, in superhero fan’s brains). “Smartest” is a completely meaningless word which, at best, denotes some kind of relative/subjective status. So people getting all riled up over the order and whether people should or shouldn’t be present is hilarious. the Intellegencia probably mean the 8 most dangerous (to them) superheroes who predominantly use their brain. Looking at it from this perspective, the choices so far make perfect sense. especially Tony Stark since Invincible Iron Man has done a pretty good job of showing how key his intelligence is, even going as far as to call it his superpower.
The storytelling was weak early on, but got stronger. I guess, really, there wasn’t much in it that grabbed me. Emotionally, I was left cold; intellectually, there wasn’t anything here that I hadn’t seen elsewhere (and, usually, done better). it was a fine book, but nothing about it compelled me to go beyond the sixth volume.
Agreed on the ‘smartest’ thing. Definitely focuses on a very specific form of intelligence/genius that leaves a lot out.
Neal K said: I think not reading all the assignments is pretty common practice in most Lit classes. I remember one of the classes in my undergrad where we were assigned some insufferable D.H. Lawrence novel. Not a single person in the class read the entire book, but the quality of classroom discussion didn’t really suffer for it. We were able to piece enough together from lectures and skimming the novel to come off as if we had actually read it. its funny, because I was nervous about the exam, then later found out in subsequent conversations with classmates that I had probably read more of the book than anyone else, and I stopped halfway through.
Yeah, there are a few books I remember standing out for that reason. Wacousta being one for Canadian lit.
Jack Norris said: Here’s a peeve for you, inspired by the just-concluded games: lameass, ignorant douche-bagular “what’s up with Curling? How’s that even a sport?” cracks every time certain Americans are reminded of its existence.
I didn’t see any of those this year. mostly, I saw comments on Twitter from a lot of people who were really enjoying curling — and never the American team’s matches. it was people watching Canada and the European countries put on fantastic matches.
Thanks for reading. Later.
35 Comments
Random reply! the sun is also one of my archnemeses. Other things on my enemy list include Shia LeBeouf, clowns and mascots of any kind (except the Burger King, I love that guy),
Random!– okay, not random at all, really reply! Amazon deep-sized my super-discounted order, as I expected. For a day or so, there was hope. I guess I won’t be getting that Herbie Archive or Stan-and-Jack FF baby-smasher anytime soon.
You get the idea. Peter David’s what Savage Beast was good– at least, I remember it being good. the Duane stuff, not so much.
Uh… People actually watched Corner Gas? Really? did they enjoy it? does one have to be Canadian to enjoy it? Some station or another here in God’s United States aired it for a bit there, and I stumbled upon it one day… it’s like some kind of terrifying black hole of quality.
I’m tired of this shtick already. Deadpool isn’t that overexposed. I proved it with maths. Still, he does have a surprising amount of solo titles, more than I think the market will be able to support. in a year’s time, he’ll probably be back to one, unless the movie comes out.
I forgot to finish my enemies’ list. it also includes Greg Burgas, and whoever was on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.
Yeah, bendis really missed the entire point of Noh-varr when he had namor beat him up.
The whole ‘Deadpool overexposure’ thing is really weird for me. Not because I hate the character, or I’m offended by the character being rammed down my throat, but I guess I’m from the time when Joe Kelly and Ed McGuness couldn’t buy readers for his solo series. I grew up with Deadpool as a third-rate Wolverine knock-off (violent guy with an attitude) fighting second-rate characters (Black Tom?) from a second rate X-book (Leifeld-era X-Force, you suck!). that Joe Kelly was able to take the character and make something truely moving and halarious is nothing short of miraculous. the book was constantly fighting cancelation, and although it never really recovered after McGuness left the book, it was still one of the best books Marvel was publishing at the time.
Everything being published today featuring the character is a pale shadow of what was done in that first series. I don’t believe that later work of any creator or of any character can diminish the original work, but what’s being published as Deadpool comics these days makes me almost say he’s been ruined. as it is, I see those books as being the one shining gem in a big pile of turd. and it makes me realize just how funny and vindictive the fates must be to make *now* be when Deadpool is at his most popular among the hoi poi. It’s almost like something… Deadpool would come up with.
Frisky Dingo, man… what a great show. I ran into Adam Reed at my mechanic’s (I had no idea what he looked like, but he started talking to someone at the counter and I’m wondering why this guy sounds like Xander Crews then he said his name and it made sense) but lacked the balls to say hello or anything.
I don’t understand why Frisky Dingo (or the all-too-brief Xtacles spinoff) never got the same kind of attention as the Venture Bros. Not to take anything away from the Venture Bros., which is great, but… other than the crappy animation, I see nothing not to like about Frisky Dingo.
I’ll take Archer any day over Frisky Dingo. H. John Benjamin is full of win, imo. Of course, I’d give up Archer and Metalocolypse both for more Home Movies (and maybe some more Dr. Katz thrown in). I know the show ran it’s course, but HM is one of my favorite TV programs ever, animated or otherwise.
Frisky Dingo is the greatest ever!
I have to say Archer is pretty good too and I highly recommend it.
People who don’t like Deadpool or constantly whine about his overexposure are simply in denial of their desire to read a comic that will have no “serious” long term effect. Deadpool comics are all about enjoyment (in the best and worse ways possible).
Huh, Greek Street IS indeed getting better.
Jason Arron’s Wolvering doesn’t suck.
With Wolverine, Thing, and Luke Cage as Avengers it seems like there will be some smoky poker games in the Avenger’s hideout. I wonder who else would be invited to Avengers Poker Night. Maybe Nick Fury, Gorilla-Man, or Bucky. I would invite Tony Stark and Warren Worthington so there is someone to hustle.
Ever read Slott’s the Thing #8? Aparently, poker’s pretty popular among the Marvel U’s caped set.
I would read a comic by Bendis that was just superheroes playing poker and talking.
The Informers, which adapts Bret Easton Ellis’s short story collection and doesn’t work.
That’s because it’s by an Australian director Gregor Jordan, who makes the most empty and souless films of all time.He won a big short film competition in Australia with a clever short… although apparently it’s VERY similar to another short, or scene from an old film.He then made a crime film which wouldn’t have gone anywhere, except it had Bryan Brown swearing a lot, and was the breakthrough (in Australia, which led to US work) of Heath Ledger.That got him signed up to a five picture film, and it’s been a slow and steady output of dribble ever since.(I know his career because I keep thinking every film will be his last, and am just shocked at watching his mediocrity continue to live).
Having seen the Informers the other week, don’t stress Chad, just about every character in it will die of AIDS soon after the credits.(Although I think we’re supposed to ignore that by combining the stories, and making them all happen at once, nearly every character had, presumably, unprotected sex with someone who had slept with another character, all leading back to the girl who dies of AIDS at the end… AIDS of course being added in, as it’s not in the novel, to give the film some kind of ending).
I realised yesterday that I have absolutely no affinity for Wolverine as a character. I’ve always suspected that, but it’s been confirmed. I don’t dislike the character, I just don’t care.
I can enjoy him when he’s treated like any other character, but when I’m reading, say, Black Widow: Origins, and he’s undercover, training Russian spies, it just kills the whole story.Or, when he’s a one man Deus ex Machina.I can only imagine he has become the sole survivor of the old theory that the comic audience turns over every four years – surely no one could think he’s awesome for longer than that?
That was one of the things that pissed me off about Millar’s Ultimate X-Men run: there were so many hints at the characters breaking free from the boring us/them dynamic of Xavier and Magneto, but it never happened.
I loved when that book hinted that Xavier was in their heads and manipulating the X-Men the whole time.That never went anywhere.
Black Summer is good.
No it isn’t.
(That was an easy debate!)
Worst thing I’ve read from Ellis since Tokyo Storm Warning.
I love the final issue. It’s more of an argument than a strong narrative, something for someone to pick up on and use in crafting their own story.
So you’re praising Ellis for writing a nice outline of a story, and then publishing it as a story?
From memory, the book has a scene where the main characters – all of whom have nothing original or distinguishing about them – are standing in a warehouse.The police are intercut with the heroes talking, surrounding a warehouse, and they kick down the door… but they have the wrong warehouse.That’s Chuck Austen level of writing.
Random thought! is it just me and my wife, or does the word “cock” sound a whole hell of a lot filthier than “dick”? the characters on Spartacus: Blood and Sand throw “cock” around as teens say “you know,” and it just sounds so obscene. is it just me?
Hey, this is fun! no wonder Chad does these.
Wasn’t it Bendis’ Jinx that was extolling the virtues of fuck as an explitive, due to the phonotic nature of the word? I think I see ‘cock’ in a similar light, like maybe the difference between the sound of fuck and shit. Cock just seems to be a much more abrupt and agressive word than dick. Dick is soothing almost, I don’t think it has the same agressive connotation.
@Greg: Using the K sound to describe genitalia does seem to intensify the filthiness.
Random thought! what the hell is up with comic characters leaving the word what out of the phrase “What the hell” lately? is it a creator quirk or just some weird way to avoid censorship? it always seems out of place to me.
This is fun!
There was an amazon sale? Dammit! I just placed an order and didn’t notice any, um, noticeable discount. Good thing they offer strong prices to begin with.
I too have an English degree and was known (back in the first half of the degree, aka, the dark Ages, where I had trouble showing up to class more than once a month, and difficulty getting up before 1 pm) to just take random passages out of books I hadn’t read and use those words to support some bs thesis I was wrapping my paper around. the end result was me doing a master’s program and having the ability to pick out bs papers like a reformed ex-con is able to pinpoint weaknesses working for security companies. those poor bastard undergrads.
*Note: I didn’t re-read nor edit the above sentences.
I loved Frisky Dingo. I should check out Archer. I’ve only seen about 10 minutes of it.
Wow, you watched a whole bunch of movies last weekend.
I actually just got Preludes and Nocturnes, so I’m re-reading it. I’ve seen quite a few recommendations/analyses (I think including Karen Berger’s!) that say Sandman took a while to get going, but I think a lot of what made it a great comic was there from the beginning. yes, I think it got better, but I think that’s because it staked out its territory in subsequent issues, not because the initial stories were lacking at all.
I didn’t follow the Unwritten past its first issue. the story really didn’t click for me, and there wasn’t anything in the art that made me want to stick around. I couldn’t find the dollar issue of Greek Street, so I’ve never read it.
Is that Genndy Tartakovsky Luke Cage series ever coming out? I’m gonna be all over that.
As of now, I have 28 super-discounted Amazon books actually shipping (for real), because I am beloved by Amazon, apparently. (And ordered mostly dark Horse Archives — hello Turok! hello Herbie.) Though the $8.00 Invincible Iron Man Omnibus was also an unbelievable steal. and it’s coming. Chad is jealous, but he’ll say he isn’t.
I don’t have the money to pay for all these discounted books I’m getting, but this is America, so I’m sure someone will bail me out at some point.
Sandman! I will reread that this week too — how far are you going, Chad? — we can Splash Page it!
And also JMS, because my first, cynical instinct there is: wow, JMS. he has never written a series I liked by the time he finished his run.
Hey, I was an English major and I read ALL the assigned books. (Problem was: I usually didn’t read them until the day before the final, and Chaucer isn’t really all that great when you read him like that. he may not be great for other reasons — the jury is still out on that.)
Deadpool finally lost his prupose.. I always saw him as the kind of character that laughs at the industry, at the rest of the characters and by doing that, relates to the reader..Now, he is just another Wolverine.. he just runs around like a bad ass, teaming up with every hero out there.Something must be really worng at Marvel, because getting too much material of only ONE character isn’t the way of making people buy comics.. it just bores people (or at least me and my friends).That is one of the truly evil things about the 90′s– with the X-Men selling so well, people would buy every crap with and X.. well, Marvel is now applying that to EVERY TITLE.. I mean, we used to get ONE “Iron Man”, one “Hulk”, etc.. now, you get the whole “family” of books, which in the end doesn’t work, because if you over-expose the characters, they kind of lose the magic that makes them wonderful..
BTW, did you like the new Iron Man 2 trailer? any thoughts on the Suitcase Armor ?
Man, Frisky Dingo was awful. it was that same classic nerd comedy where people say and do “outlandish” things that are supposed to be irreverent and funny, but just end up drowning any punch of the delivery in constant hyperbole. It’s like guys who use “rape” in the context of beating someone at a video game. It’s no longer an extreme or provocative phrase if you use it every single time. and they couldn’t decide if they wanted the plot to matter at all or just be an excuse for those characters to interact.
Dumb, bad, boring.
Fuck, if you two are gonna Splash Page it, I’ll have to re-read it too.
Hard consonants give dirty words their power.
Goddammit, Callahan, you lucky bastard. That’s it, you’re going on the enemies list.
Dibs on your extra omnibi, Tim! I am apparently not getting a full run of Nexus and EC archives.
Is it just me and my wife, or does the word “cock” sound a whole hell of a lot filthier than “dick”?
Do you mean in cursing terms, or in talking filthy to your partner terms?
Frisky Dingo is pretty great. Not dumb, bad, or boring really.
Funny, yes.
As soon as the words “hero’s journey” pop up in an argument, I automatically feel less obligated to read on in a respectful manner.It’s become the fans & critics (oh, and let’s not forget some creators as well) version of “because, uh… because Jesus, God and the Bible, that’s why!” in the way that it’s just an empty appeal to authority.
I don’t mind Campbellian heroes’ journeys or Jungian archetypes; they’re fun. But they’re something that should be achieved subconsciously, or discussed retroactively, and not planned for or played toward. They’re not a means to an end. They’re a quick way to fire off an English paper when it’s 1 am and it’s due at 8 am.
Let’s get back to what Everstop said above– What’s the deal with characters leaving the ‘what’ out of ‘what the Hell’ in recent years? (Let’s rewrite that sentence as ‘The deal with characters leaving the “what” out of “what the Hell” in recent years?’ it sounds really stupid that way, doesn’t it?)
I first noticed it the first time I read something by Bendis, which was a new Avengers collection from the library. I soon notice that it appeared all the time in his books and I just assumed it was just a weird Bendis-thing. But lately I’ve been seeing it in several other books, too.It’s really annoying because I never hear people talk like that in real life.Why isn’t everyone else complaining about this?
I say “the hell?” sometimes and have heard other people say it.
Random Wrestling / TV reply: Not only does TNA screw up the watching of RAW (not really), it interferes with one’s watching of CASTLE (which for me wins out over both wrestling programs in the end), and gives me absolutely *nothing* to watch on Thursday nights. Jackass move on their part. (Makes me miss when my satellite TV gave me feeds for both the east and west coast, so if I wanted to watch something that aired simultaneously, I could watch one and watch the other 3 hours later on the later feed. Ah well.)
Random reply RE: UNWRITTEN: I haven’t read past the first issue yet (the entire series is still on hold with my mail order retailer), but I’m quitting at issue #12. Partly because I don’t want to keep piling up back stock in my hold box, and partly because I really haven’t heard anything of note about the series from anyone, and a year’s run is typically what I give any new series and usually drop unless it’s mind-blowing. when I get the back issues, if it’s any good, I’ll consider the trades for later (but I tend to doubt it; I have too many books I want as it is).
My problem with JMS’ better comics (Midnight Nation, Rising Stars, Supreme Power) is that he spent an awful lot of time on set-up, and very little on delivery. I read all 18 issues of Supreme Power, but got the impression that the story JMS wanted to tell would have taken at least 50 more. Rising Stars started out great (although the art was sub-par), but ended limply. Midnight Nation is a self-contained story, at least, but they seemed to spend most of the issues lurching toward a rather predictable conclusion (I liked it, despite its flaws). I think JMS is good at world-building, but falters when it comes to structuring.
Noh-Varr without Morrison… ugh. It’s like Howard the Duck without Gerber. I think the Noh-Varr situation will go down as one of Marvel’s storytelling blunders, on par with the bungled Hobgoblin story and the last issues of the Jesus story in Ghost Rider.
The only redeeming bit from “Cop Out” was the “Duck Season/Rabbit Season” argument between Morgan and Sean William Scott. the rest of the film was a complete bore.
Which version of “The Taking of Pelham 123″ did you watch? God, I hope you didn’t waste your time watching the insipid remake.
I got my Amazon “Sold out, sorry” emails that cancelled my discounted Omnibus orders…
I was expecting it, but I didn’t expect them to use the same bull$#!t excuse for cancelling the Pre-orders (Marshal Law Omnibus and Complete Bloom County Vol.2)…
I mean, come on, they sold out of books that haven’t even been released yet?
Either honour the price that you solicited, or give us the truth… “Oops, we’ve sold out” doesn’t cover all the cock-ups…
I got the same e-mail, Tim–is the excuse really that big a deal?
Amazon was sending out millions of e-mails, while at the same time trying to cancel everyone’s order and find and change dozens of price listings. They had about a day to try to avoid losing an ungodly amount of money. are you really upset that they didn’t go through every single purchaser’s list of orders and specify why each title was not shipping? I think a misapplied form letter is really nothing to get angry about.
Leave a Comment