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Post by Van Plexico on Dec 11, 2006 0:48:44 GMT -5
Well, you are far too kind-- but since I haven't seen them yet, it may be that my text was awful and the editor cleaned it all up. That is very interesting because I have been expecting the same thing you were. Certainly there's lots of original character art (such as you were expecting, I think) shown on that Web site for the cards. I don't know enough yet to speculate on what might have happened, or on how typical of the overall set your cards might be. I do find that strange, though. And yeah, trying to make stories like Rage vs Doom sound entertaining was about as fun as smashing your hand with a hammer, but I did what I could.
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Post by Van Plexico on Dec 10, 2006 21:47:48 GMT -5
Has anyone seen the Avengers cards yet? (I have not.) I'd like to hear what folks think of them, in general. I'm hoping to get a set soon, and will report back-- though I have a sneaking suspicion I'll like the text on the backs better than the art. ha ha.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jan 3, 2007 17:58:43 GMT -5
Nope, just a lifetime's exposure to the powerful psychedelic effects of Jim Starlin comics.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jan 3, 2007 1:30:58 GMT -5
Speaking of Galactus:
Every now and then, I think about basic questions to do with the Marvel Universe. Often these have led me to ideas for stories (for MV1 or whatever). But the following never lent itself to a story idea, and sat on my computer for several months. I just came across it and thought I might run it past you folks, to see what you think:
What is Galactus?
He is the living embodiment or expression of the Power Cosmic, given a sentient force and intellect.
What is the Power Cosmic?
It is the sum of all the power of all the stars in the heavens.
So what does Galactus do?
He devours planets that possess a biosphere, a life force.
But, what are planets?
“Planets” translates as “wanderers.” Planets are formed from the heavier elements when the stars condense in stellar nurseries. Planets are, essentially, the lost, wandering children of the stars. Planets with life have a tiny fraction of the Power Cosmic, since their biosphere/life force is powered and maintained by the energy coming from the stars they orbit.
Thus when Galactus devours planets, he is acting as the agent of the Power Cosmic itself, returning the lost children to their parents, reuniting tiny portions of the Power Cosmic with the greater whole.
Thoughts??
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Post by Van Plexico on Dec 18, 2006 15:07:34 GMT -5
I love all the old Galactus stories... I think my favorites (in no particular order) are: * The Horror that Walks on Air (Gabriel). * The FF storyline where he battles the Sphinx (while the FF battles Terrax). * The battle between Galactus (on one side) and the Avengers, FF, and Doctor Strange on the other. It's the one that ends with Reed deciding to save him. (That's the Frankie Raye one, right?) And with Frankie Raye cast in the upcoming FF movie, I am sort of hoping that's the story they're going with-- or at least the ending. But I'll bet it's not. WIZARD has intimated we won't get very much of the Big G in the movie... And don't forget his drinking contest with Hercules!!
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Post by Van Plexico on Dec 13, 2006 20:55:59 GMT -5
Agreed. They have history and make for better chemistry, I think. I do like seeing Wondy appearing in Carol's comic, but they just don't work for me as a couple -- he's too much the self-doubting semi-doofus (the way he's portrayed these days) and she's way too tough and independent for him, I think. I agree that Cap made a good match for her before, but not now. I can't think of hardly any superhero that would be a good match for her now, in fact. Hey, Moon Knight's single again...
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Post by Van Plexico on Nov 8, 2006 1:26:12 GMT -5
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Post by Van Plexico on Oct 27, 2006 22:15:04 GMT -5
I've always assumed the google box at the bottom of this and every page of the Board would do that...
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Post by Van Plexico on Oct 12, 2006 19:57:33 GMT -5
Thanks, guys. I was pretty excited to be asked, yeah. They asked me just a while before I had to move to St. Louis for my new job, and the deadline was right after I got here. So you can imagine how frantically I was researching and writing. Gaaaah. An honor? Yes. Cool? Oh yeah. A nice credit on the comics/SF resume? Sure. And, honestly, probably appropriate, since I had the AvengersAssemble site up maybe even before Marvel itself had a site? You betcha. But fun? No no no no no! It should have been, and some parts (Shooter, Busiek, Lee) were... but MAN, trying to make sense out of (and 100 words of summary out of) Proctor and the Gatherers, for example... No. Not fun. But I am very glad I got to do it. Yeah.
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Post by Van Plexico on Oct 8, 2006 18:36:32 GMT -5
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Post by Van Plexico on Oct 12, 2006 19:46:02 GMT -5
If by "mind blowing" you mean "time consuming," then yeah. Trying to write the sequel SENTINELS novel (we of the WhiteRocketBooks consortium will actually have maybe five books (!!) out by the end of next year), plus all this Web stuff, plus, oh yeah, my new job (thanks a bunch, Rael!)... Well, is it any wonder I haven't had a steady girlfriend in over a year?! Agggh! Note to Rael-- "outing" me is fine; I never hid anything from the folks here-- I just figured they didn't care!
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Post by Van Plexico on Sept 30, 2006 12:27:26 GMT -5
So Mike Carey has taken over writing chores on ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR, and to start things off we have the "God War" arc.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure who Mike Carey is, but if you had cut the credits out of these two issues and asked me who wrote them, I'd have guessed Scott Lobdell. Because, to me, it reads like nothing so much as those slightly erratic, somewhat hard to follow issues he wrote back a few years ago. An influx of goofy-named characters who behave in incredibly silly ways, big ideas that somehow seem much "smaller" than they should, etc.
I liked Mark Millar's two runs on this book tremendously. But now... I'm hanging by a thread, and I'm still buying it mostly because I have come to like the personalities and interactions of *this* FF, to some degree, better than the "real" one.
But it's getting close.
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Post by Van Plexico on Oct 1, 2006 18:02:14 GMT -5
My choice would be to immediately move to address the problems with the AVENGERS, so I don't want to choose any of the above. Maybe the "speed up the movies" one.
One problem it would solve for them: What to do with the money I give them every month. Because they wouldn't have to worry about that anymore if they did that.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jun 25, 2007 14:39:57 GMT -5
That's amazing.
It has to be a glitch, surely?!
And, unlike certain other recent developments here *koff koff Doom koff koff* this wasn't my doing at all!!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 28, 2006 18:31:25 GMT -5
I'm very glad folks seem to be enjoying this forum, and respecting each other while here. I don't know why it is, but the Avengers-related things I've put together on the Web (the AA site, the MV-1 Project, and now this forum) seem to become popular pretty quickly. I don't know that I necessarily have anything to do with that... It's really the quality of the people who come and get involved, after those things are set up. So my commendations go out to all of you, for doing your part to make this a community worth visiting and being a part of. Now we just need to keep this forum from sliding into five years of benign neglect (like AA from about 2000-'04, while I was working three jobs simultaneously) or MV-1 (which flew apart in its own, real-life version of Civil War-- heh). I will continue to be a less-than-frequent visitor here as I continue preparations for my move (next week) and my new career. Once I get settled in and start the new job, I should be back pretty much daily again. In the meantime-- Keep up the good work, folks!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 28, 2006 18:52:50 GMT -5
What Shiryu said.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 28, 2006 18:51:42 GMT -5
I voted "completist," but not in the sense that I have to have every issue of something.
I spend a lot of time and effort communicating my views about comics, and especially, above all else, the Avengers, on the Web (here and elsewhere) and at conventions.
I feel it is my duty to know what I'm talking about, so I keep reading it. If someone gave me a free copy every month, so that I didn't have to be "part of the problem" of the book selling so well, I would gladly take it. I've already sold all my Bendis back issues.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 28, 2006 18:49:27 GMT -5
If I thought Bendis were a poor writer in general, I would simply chalk this run up alongside some others I don't care to name.
But I think he's quite talented. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN is an excellent book. His work on DAREDEVIL speaks for itself.
That makes the mess he's made of our beloved AVENGERS all the harder to fathom.
I still maintain he is better suited to screenplays. He doesn't write like a comic book writer, and I fear he will be influential and help create a whole new generation of writers who prefer having superheroes standing around, chatting incoherently, rather than actually doing stuff...
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 28, 2006 18:45:30 GMT -5
I started in 1977, with issue #162 (Ultron kills half the team! Gyaaaaaaah!!) So next year will be 30 years for me. Good gosh!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 20, 2006 22:24:33 GMT -5
Wow, that is some big news. I simply don't get why Bendis has to be on both. Other than sales/profits. Which, I suppose, answers my question. If Frank Cho is drawing the new "Mighty" book, I guess we know which team will include Ms. Marvel!
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 31, 2006 7:51:51 GMT -5
Buy: Silver Surfer. While I find him tedious in the extreme, and his recent "Annihilation" series bored me to tears, the rumors about the FF sequel movie should send his stock soaring, at least for a while.
Sell: All of the other "Annihilation" characters. They weren't too popular to begin with, and this mess has actually managed, IMO, to cheapen them further. It may be too late to get anything out of this "stock"-- it may be like trying to unload Delta Airlines today-- but I only see it sliding further downhill in the days to come.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 16, 2006 0:31:45 GMT -5
Borrowing an idea from sports radio, I'll throw this out and see what you folks come up with.
The idea is, name a character that you would rate a "buy" right now, and one you would rate a "sell." Then tell why for each.
What this means is, a character would be a "buy" if you think he or she is "on the way up" in the near future-- more popularity, more exposure, etc. A character would be a "sell" if he or she is, in your view, about to tank; to nosedive; to drop off precipitously in popularity and exposure-- but hasn't yet! The trick is to catch them just before they drop.
Here are my first two, to kick things off:
BUY: Taskmaster. Because hardly anyone knows who he is, nowadays, but he's about to appear in a hot comic series, and they look to be doing him "right" again, like he was back in the beginning.
SELL: Spider-Woman. I think she's about as big (take that however you want!) right now as she's gonna be, and it's a good time to unload her before she slides downhill.
Next?
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Post by Van Plexico on Jul 16, 2006 0:16:54 GMT -5
I have a feeling that Wanda's situation may play a large part in the second year of YOUNG AVENGERS. Just a guess...
(Remember how she and Pietro went on a "Yesterday Quest" for their own origins? Well, now it's her kids' turn to do the same, I'm thinking...)
And if so, that means it will be done well, with appropriate respect, and developed over time, rather than rushed. That's good.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jun 22, 2006 18:31:15 GMT -5
Great job, Shiryu! He's already earning his keep, folks! The noble Shiryu E. Jarvis has become Silver Shiryu! His is the power of the cosmic vaccuum cleaner! ;D
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Post by Van Plexico on Jun 5, 2006 21:02:03 GMT -5
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Post by Van Plexico on May 30, 2006 17:44:24 GMT -5
For me, it's writing all the way. But, of course, I fancy myself a writer (when I'm not doing all this Web site stuff!) so I would naturally lean that way. Plus I can't draw for crap. If I could, I would have tried to be another Byrne/Moeller/Windsor-Smith type who does it all. Oh, how I resented those double-talented guys in years gone by! Not to mention, it ticks me off that a writer has to beg people to spend days reading something before getting any feedback, while an artist can just hold up a piece of art and have people glance at it and go, "OOOoooohhh! Nice!" But I will admit that the same story, with mediocre-to-bad art, will not linger fondly in my memory the way the same exact story, with Perez-level art, will. Here's how I'd rank comics artists, purely in terms of how much I enjoy their work, and how much I think it can elevate the quality of a story: 1. Steve Rude 2. George Perez 3. The main artist on YOUNG AVENGERS (gaah...name...) Plus whoever it was doing THUNDERBOLTS a year or two ago. I also really like Alan Davis a lot, and Steve Epting's work is, I find, much improved in the last couple of years (part of that may be the inking-- I was never a big Tom Palmer fan). Jeff Smith's BONE art was gorgeous...so crisp and clean. And of course Cary Nord doing that pencils-only thing, over on CONAN. Wow.
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Post by Van Plexico on Jun 2, 2006 8:16:56 GMT -5
Since I've never read much DC and never saw most of those DC appearances by Perez, it was between first and second runs on AVENGERS for me.
I didn't much like Al Vey's inking on Vol. 3, so I went with 1970s Perez Avengers.
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Post by Van Plexico on May 26, 2006 12:48:23 GMT -5
George was a member of my original Avengers Mailing List, briefly, several years ago, but found it took too much time away from his work. I think we can all agree that we want him hard at work, busily drawing!
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MVi
May 13, 2006 0:11:04 GMT -5
Post by Van Plexico on May 13, 2006 0:11:04 GMT -5
Looks like the URL has expired, but can't be grabbed by squatters for a couple more weeks. I have contacted the owner and will see what we can do. Thanks for the heads-up!
In the meantime, if anyone can list the URLs for some of the separate pages of it, that would be great (and we do have an MV-1 forum here, down at the bottom of the main page, too).
My own contributions to it can be found on the AA! site, under FanFiction, below the MV-1 main link.
I'd love to see MV-1 get going in a big way again. We'll see what the future holds...
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Post by Van Plexico on May 10, 2006 22:14:16 GMT -5
This is simply what the Leader wants you to think. Don't believe the hype.
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