|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 21, 2008 11:12:30 GMT -5
nope. comicdom may not agree with me, but I still think bringing Bucky back is the worst idea in recent memory. Yep, worse than One More Day. That bad...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 19, 2008 18:08:53 GMT -5
And I could not disagree more with both of you. It's been made clear for some time that for these eight months, the "Avengers" book is, for all intents and purposes Secret Invasion proper, and these two have been shedding light on the details of what is, in essence, an Avengers story. I'd go further and say quite a few of the stories explored here have been deeply Avengers-related- the Sentry one, the replacement of Spider-Woman, the replacement of Pym, the fake Cap etc- all dealing with Avengers aspects of the overall story. Yes, you do get issues- like this issue, like the Fury ones- which don't really concern Avengers past or present, but they tie directly into explaining the bigger picture, which is an Avengers story. Again, I feel it's an interesting way to do things, and it's been evident that this was what they were doing since day one. If you only buy Avengers books, you only needed to buy the main "SI" for these eight months, and I don't see how Marvel could have made that any clearer. I'm a big fan of smaller stories that reveal much. I just don't think these stories are really doing it. Also as per my tastes, I feel when the storytellers have this huge tapestry and then focus on small points it really works. However, SI has been just as much, if not more about the small points. Personal stories, individual character motives, that's just as much the content of this entire story. Thus since I don't feel the scope of SI as a big story, the more intimate stories don't illuminate anything for me. As a result, even though I'm a big fan of seeing the smaller points of a big story, this several issue run ain't doing it for me.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 15, 2008 20:29:06 GMT -5
That guy could be Marvel Boy . . . oh lord, it likely is... sorry but noh-varr suffers from grant morrisonization. that is he's got such all out crazy and numerous abilities that he makes for a very boring good guy. mind control, exploding fingernails, super speed, strength, advanced technology, nearly impossible to hurt... sersi also suffers from this for example, she can fly, is super strong, almost unkillable, shoots eye beams and can rearrange matter. even superman should be afraid of sersi. eh, now i'm hoping this is just promo art for something. this team is looking entirely too powerful.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 14, 2008 21:18:42 GMT -5
looks like that second figure is being kept fairly vague on purpose. there's no real distinguishable characteristics except the vague outline of a mask. maybe a version of Cap? as for the the hank pym guess, oh I would love that... I guess the first one could be Hawkeye too, but I'm hoping Marvel wouldn't make him switch from japanese swords to guns instead of giving him back his bow and arrows... a gun would still make more sense. you can aim and point and do stuff from long distance with a gun. but hank carried a gun a while back- a disruptor gun, but a gun nonetheless. I keep fearing that these are Young Avengers that are being brought into the fold...Unlike others I didn't ever embrace that book. this will certainly be a powerhouse lineup if this is actually the case. Hulk, Iron Man, Hercules and Vision alone are pretty scary... Add in Wanda and you've got a world beater team there.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 14, 2008 18:48:23 GMT -5
Two questions: who's the guy between IM, Jocasta and the Scarlet Witch (could it be Hank Pym)...? And who's the dude between IM, Jocasta and Hercules...? looks like that second figure is being kept fairly vague on purpose. there's no real distinguishable characteristics except the vague outline of a mask. maybe a version of Cap? as for the the hank pym guess, oh I would love that...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 11, 2008 0:07:23 GMT -5
I can't believe this guy didn't understand that in the real world, death is final. A comic death no matter how much you invest in it can be overturned in a few days by another writer or artist. And your old comics are always there. I can't even understand how anyone could compare the two. It's a pure shame. I actually felt so moved by a person giving a d**n and trying to do the right thing and now it's just so disappointing... I should be more glad you're alive, but I just don't care right now...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Oct 6, 2008 13:08:41 GMT -5
It's an easy and appropriate issue of the Surfer for me. Silver Surfer #5 vol 1 The Stranger decides humanity needs to be eradicated so he sets off a null life bomb. The Surfer is fighting the Stranger and earthman Al Harper has to deactivate the bomb. One ordinary man doing the right thing has to save everyone... The end of this story always chokes me up. www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/alharper.htmas to my Surfer? I ideally like him unbound to Earth but under some other constraint. he's a tragically driven character and keeping him from Shalla Bal or some other emotionally potent device works. However the being bound to earth thing ran its course during the sixties. I have bought his book on occasion, but like him more as a guest star.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 27, 2008 14:34:25 GMT -5
agreed. last few pages are among the best of the year. this book made a quantum leap in readability and quality...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 26, 2008 21:29:02 GMT -5
the scutlebutt I'm hearing (and it is only rumors) is that Dan Slott is pegged for MA...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 25, 2008 22:26:08 GMT -5
Thanks for the warning, but several years of Bendis, Quesada, Didio et al have left me with a "look before you buy" attitude with virtually 90% of Marvel's titles and 70% of DC's titles. caveat emptor is the way of life with current comics... I've been that way for years now, not just with current comics... then again, there was a point where Busiek Avengers was all I bought. The middle of his run was when I stopped reading (Though not for the reasons that I don't read books today,) and after learning what was going on afterward I decided to not read new ones any longer. well if it's a new book I'm enjoying, I don't bother with this reading it first. The Black Panther is a book I'm looking forward to and am not flipping through beforehand- don't want to ruin my enjoyment of it. Captain Britain was the same way until Marvel short sheeted me on issue 4 and now I'm left unfulfilled. But any of marvel's event books, anything written by Ellis or Morrison or Millar, I always flip through first. I don't think I've enjoyed a Millar book since his fill in run on the Flash. And Bendis? Oy... I could put a down payment on a compact car with the number of books he's written that I've looked at and said no thanks. So Bendis is actually responsible for the collapse of the economy. People at marvel would have my money if not for him ;D
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 25, 2008 14:18:00 GMT -5
It's been a whils since I posted around here, but felt compelled to warn my fellow Avengers fans about this issue. With apologies to the fans of Mr Bendis, I have to warn my fellow Avengers fans to really review this issue before you spend your money on it. I unfortunately spent mine. Then I read it. The entire issue is a House of M and the skrull plan spin off except for the last couple pages where the Annihilation wave is mentioned. Not only does this issue do nothing to advance the story of the Invasion, it pays homage to a previous big event that was questionable in its quality at best. Forgive my negativity. I have tried to be tolerant of stuff that was sub par and looked for the good in stuff that didn't really please me. But I have to speak out against this issue. Vote with your dollars. Boycott this issue. But at least look it over before you buy so you can decide if this is what you want for your $3 from an Avengers book. I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for the warning, but several years of Bendis, Quesada, Didio et al have left me with a "look before you buy" attitude with virtually 90% of Marvel's titles and 70% of DC's titles. caveat emptor is the way of life with current comics...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 22, 2008 22:28:32 GMT -5
Well, Gil may be alive and well as per the latest Eternals continuity but I guess within the "Avengersverse" he seems to be so generally loathed and despised that for all intents and purposes he remains dead... The consensus seems to be that his dead was the one good thing which came out of the Crossing. I truly don't get this. The character had a ton of potential. He's a world weary, seen too much violence character straight out of legend. In fact, according to him, many legends formed from his deeds. He served the Celestials as sort of their herald and may have some unique insight into their workings. This guy sounds very interesting on paper. Did his Avenger appearances tank? Sure, but why blame Gilgamesh for the diaper and horned helmet looks he had to sport? Why blame him for the badly written shoehorned Avengers team he got thrown on? Why blame him for John Byrne's supremely forgettable run as writer on the Avengers? Unlike Ares whose character has suddenly done a 180 and was putting children in danger less than probably two years ago Marvel time, or Deathcry an obvious X-Men character thrown into the Avenger mix just to pull in that readership because of her Sh'iar and X-ties, or Sentry, a very one note idea whose personality quirk makes him impossible as a viable character (if you ever cure him, he's too impossibly powerful to be interesting, but since you can't cure him, the stories lack a viable pull for the reader)...unlike all of these characters, he's got an interesting backstory to be expanded on, a current tie to several possible good storylines (why did the Celestials pick him anyway...? Did he let himself die during the Crossing seeing as minus complete molecular decohesion, most Eternals can't die unless they allow it, essentially) and personality conflicts a good writer could play with. Personally I'd much rather have this guy in my sandbox than 90% of what's out there. Then again, I'd actually attempt to write a good storyline for him...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 21, 2008 23:34:29 GMT -5
wow, haters in the house...better not complain when I give the same treatment to Ares, Echo and Deathcry among others.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 21, 2008 22:08:40 GMT -5
I'm an action figure guy. I like to customize and decided since I'm half done with my new Loki figure I would start on Gilgamesh (like to have a good ratio of hero to villain in my Avengers diorama--might as well go all out nerd ;D ) . But couldn't find much good picture reference for my favorite Gilgamesh look-- his silver "Forgotten One" costume from various Thor and Eternals issues so I started looking online. And I know from the retcons of The Crossing that Rita DeMara and Gil are always presumed possibly alive but it appears that wikipedia is presenting a current cover image that is Gilgamesh? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_One_(comics)Anybody read Eternals 5? Is Gilgamesh back in continuity? EDIT: Evidently Gil has been back since Eternals #3. Guess most of us Avengers fans haven't been following this one too closely...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 14, 2008 23:10:42 GMT -5
I just started teaching group exercise classes so sadly an awful lot of techno dance stuff. However I did rediscover my love for Jamiroquai and have been listening to that pretty regularly!! Other than that a lot of Steely Dan and 70s- 80s r&b and soul...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 12, 2008 20:55:02 GMT -5
Don't like the premise at all. Doom is so much better when he's fighting from behind. Anytime you involve something that essentially rewrites reality you've given him the upper hand. The Celestials are unearthly powerful, but the gems give control over all reality, which includes them... Hope this is an alternate reality, probably What If Doom Had Won Secret Wars?
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Sept 12, 2008 19:41:16 GMT -5
I didn't expect Bendis to get off but he did. Now I bet everyone is waiting for Bendis to get off NA so that the roster can go back to being the Avengers that fans know so that characters Luke Cage stay away from the Avengers. Luke Cage is one of my favorite Avengers ever.There. I said it. COME AND GET ME! Why come and get you? If you said Ares, then I'd wonder a tad because his conversion to hero has been a pretty bad one, but Luke is cool with me. I think I read somewhere- maybe even here that Roger Stern planned to put him on the team way back when. Luke has marvel lineage and is a great character when used properly. Do I agree that Bendis has sort of ignored his characterization? Yep, I do. But I blame Bendis and not Luke for that (Luke being fictional and all...). Luke ain't my favorite, but I don't hate him. Keep in mind I'm someone who'd put Moondragon, Firebird, Forgotten One and Starfox on the same team if I had my druthers, so I understand left field choices...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 29, 2008 12:10:56 GMT -5
She has a unique personality in comics and I think she would be fun to write as a character. Definitely underdeveloped in terms of what she can bring to the table. Always thought she and Starfox would be good on a team together, they'd bring an interesting sexual chemistry. That's part of why I like certain characters that didn't have good stints as Avengers- you can see where the potential lies with some of them.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 29, 2008 11:52:55 GMT -5
again, this review really hit home for me, and I wonder now despite some predictions if this event won't start to drop off in sales as even the IGN reviewers who were thoroughly enjoying the beginning are finding the continuing story lacking. oh and for those keeping score at home, the skrull Hank Pym took on a super skrull and a score of faux SHIELD agents and gave them a nice run for most of the book. The real Hank Pym? Got knocked out in two seconds in his underwear after one weak disruptor blast fighting one skrull who may not have had any extra abilities. Why does Bendis hate him so?
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 29, 2008 11:43:04 GMT -5
can't believe I find myself agreeing with IGN.com... I still don't understand why you need much else besides the power to mass produce super skrulls and skrull natural abilities. either one of these powers has been incredibly difficult to fight before, now organized and done in great quantity and with precision, they're incredibly dangerous. that's enough of a threat right there. I find it boring that they had to make the skrulls incalculably powerful. incidentally some reviewer at CBR thinks that Reed's coming up with the deus ex machina skrull revealer ray isn't such a cop-out, yet this issue proves exactly why it may not be deus ex machina, it's pretty dang stupid on the skrull's part. www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17754There's the review and here's my rebuttal. The plan that allowed the skrulls to hide themselves came from Reed Richards. In theory he would figure it out if given a chance, and therefore could counteract it. Well, then, who's the very person in this universe who you would want to kill? The sole person who can undo your invasion? Probably. At the very least you want him trapped in a stone age locker with nothing to build a skrull revealer ray and about fifty million light years from earth. "they didn't know he was going to escape" you say. I note madness is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Every time the skrulls capture Reed, he escapes. i would estimate he's nearing fifty escapes at this point. The Skrulls might as well call him Mister Miracle instead of Mister Fantastic. Memo to skrulls: YOU'RE NOT GOOD AT CAPTURING REED RICHARDS!!! They might as well leave a mint on his pillow and a question card to ask if he liked his cell as he'll only spend three days and two nights there.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 28, 2008 22:06:14 GMT -5
can you get a clearer picture? I'd love to see it in detail.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 28, 2008 21:58:46 GMT -5
oh man I was gonna say the same exact thing. i loved the line about Bullseye. I will not ruin it for anyone, but I will say it is my favorite comics moment of 2008! I actually like the art more than mignola's hellboy. mignola tends to let his figures get more squat whereas the art is Panther fits with the long sinewy and graceful characters. the shadowing is quite similar to mignola's though so I do see that...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 28, 2008 8:58:59 GMT -5
[ Well there's a bunch of points to argue (i.e. how can you say SI's drop has leveled off when it isn't finished yet- it could both rise or fall dramatically before its completion obviously, Before the end, yes, but in July it's numbers stabilised considerably and it's unlikely to see huge drops based on past patterns. Decisions made years ago, but that it is the lower selling universe is irrefutable fact. Let us take June this year as our example (As no titles were in event mode)- and do some comparisons Ultimates- 95,000 New Avengers- 108,000 Uncanny X-Men- 81,000 Ultimate X-Men- 48,000 Fantastic Four- 61,000 Ultimate Fantastic Four- 35,000 Amazing Spider-Man- 72,000/70,000/70,000 Ultimate Spider-Man- 57,0000 Okay, first the obvious, in every case, the 616 title is crushing the Ultimate one. More importantly, for Spidey, said title is coming out three times a month and still maintains a larger audience. New Avengers is in event mode, yes, but even pre event mode it was selling around the Ultimates, which has ALWAYS been the number one Ultimate title, and an excellent seller in its own right. Now consider that there are only four Ultimate books anyway and three of them are in large declines, I don't see how you can really argue that the Ultimate line is a lower seller. It's difficult to argue it's anything close to the scale of what the Crises or Civil War and Secret Invasion were supposed to be- the tie-ins are almost unanimously seperate miniseries or low-selling titles trying to get a boost in sales, and it had absolutely no lasting effects on any title that wasn't Hulk, not to mention its far lower level of promotion and the fact that major Marvel characters, such as the Avengers who have headlined the last few events, were barely ever touted in it- plus, as previously mentioned, out of every crossover since 2005, it's the only one not to have an A-list writer. forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=170565but at least there are some numbers to go off of. I'm going to check on some of these myself and see if there are any other issues that help or hinder these numbers. but I am glad there's some quantification to the discussion. One thing is for certain, Marvel tends to create much more "need to buy" with their crossovers. I've been reading several books and the impact of Final Crisis is barely felt. whereas you can't read a Marvel book without needing to buy ten others right now. It's much more canny in terms of marketing. And I think Final Crisis is actually somewhat repetitive, very reminiscent of Grant Morrison's JLA Rock of Ages storyline in a lot of places. [/quote] Well keep in mind when many of these editorial decisions were made the Ultimate line was selling far better. For example, the first issue of new Avengers is laying the groundwork for Secret Invasion isnt it? So the influence of The Ultimates back then sales wise is what matters, and not today, when the book has a far less popular creative team. And when the Ultimates started these are the numbers I found The first volume of Ultimates #1 ranked fourth among the top 300 comics sold for February 2002, based on Diamond Publisher's indexes,[3] with the next three issues ranked second,[4] second,[5] and third,[6] respectively. Popmatters.com praised Mark Millar's writing in the opening eight issues, stating the writer "is able to walk a very fine line of keeping the story measured yet entertaining".[7] Comics Bulletin, in a review of the "Homeland Security" story arc, states the artwork is "visual magnificence" yet is concerned about the dark writing of the characters stripped of their "super-heroic nobility" and was "disheartened by the book’s tone and cynicism".[8] Shakingthrough.net gave "Homeland Security" a 4.2 out of 5.0 stating it is an "engaging read, filled with intriguing and amusing modern takes on classic Marvel characters" whilst praising Bryan Hitch's artwork by saying it is "amazing, gorgeous artwork, which continues to set the standard for cinematic photo-realism."[9] Ultimates 2 #1 ranked second among the top 300 comics sold for December 2004,[10] with the next three issues ranked second,[11] fourth[12] and sixth,[13] respectively. Reviewing Ultimates 2, Curledup.com praised Millar's writing of the classic heroes and the "inclusion of current-day politics" improves the storyline.[14] Comics Bulletin reviewed the final issue #13 but found it anti-climatic with the issue degenerating to a "slug fest". The artwork was praised with the reviewer stating that Bryan Hitch's "artwork has definitely been one of the main elements that will make this series memorable."[15] Denofgeek.com praised the artwork, with "Bryan Hitch doing some of the best work of his career", but was critical of the Millar's writing stating it had "no substance".[16] Ultimates 3 #1 ranked first in December 2007's Top 300 comics with preorder sales of 131,401,[17] Issue #2 ranked number seven with 105,070 preorders.[18] Issue three ranked better than its predecessor, falling at number five, but had a smaller number of preorders, totaling at 97,210.[19] Reviewing Ultimates 3, IGN called the book a "reasonably decent experience" although the issue "falters on its own merits",[20] only to later state while reviewing the third issue that "Behind the theatrics and swagger, there's just nothing there to draw me in. These are the characters that I used to enjoy in name only, hollow shells of what they used to be."[21] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimates#cite_note-2So the numbers for the Ultimates in its early inception would've had a far greater impact on current Marvel and those numbers were quite robust. I believe Ultimate Spider Man was like this as well and Joe Q has made it no secret he enjoyed seeing the Ultimate Spider Man who wasn't married and could still date and have that particular brand of emotional angst that the character was lacking these days. Of course, it's quite interesting to see that The Ultimate Universe is in steep decline now. I believe I read in an interview that Kurt Busiek left the Avengers in part due to feeling he would have to compete with these new version of the Avengers and felt it was a lose-lose situation. One, it would dilute the uniqueness of the current characters, and two if it sold better, it would put him in an unfortunate spot whereas if it sold worse it wouldn't matter because it was an experiment. I also recall reading that many of DCs events do better in trade paperback form than is expected which may help overall sales in the long run. That's something I'll have to verify though. And I would still disagree about World War Hulk. First just because Greg Pak wasn't a superstar writer isn't an issue. After all, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar weren't always superstar writers. The audience had to see a project that wowed them and the sales increased because of that notice. That's much more a current mentality where only superstar writers and pencilers are put on big events. It's a silly "rockstar" sort of thing that I wish would pass so that we don't get the same sort of projects all the time. Also many collectors I know are completists, it's part of the mentality. If you put out a checklist with forty books even if they only crossover tangentially, some collectors will pick them up. Their own fault? Agreed, but it is a tactic and its being utilized and it will effect 10% or 15% or more of the people buying the crossover...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 26, 2008 20:08:57 GMT -5
I really wish you'd provide some facts to back this sort of statement up. How about these? 1- In 2005, "Infinite Crisis #1" sold 250,000, #1 for the month 2- DC have been promoting "Final Crisis" since May 2007 3- Not only was "Final Crisis #1" second in the month, it wasn't even CLOSE to #1 4- DC put one of the biggest teams in comicdom on it and managed to sell only 160,000. Between "Infinite" and "Final", 90,000 sales were lost- between "Civil War" and "Secret Invasion", 10,000 sales were lost. And it started higher. 5- "World War Hulk", promoted as a minor event with little to no effect on continuity and just a "light smash-fest", with a high profile artist and a not high profile writer, managed to outsell FC 1 with it's first issue. 6- "Ultimate Origins", set as a prequel story in the lower selling Ultimate universe, managed to outsell DC's super-mega-giant-event in June, which is particularly embarassing. It's difficult to see any way on which DC can regard this as a good thing, especially with such a huge team. They're basically selling in increments a monthly title could beat. Now, I LOVE Final Crisis- I find it better than Secret Invasion. But the sales cannot be close to what DC hoped. Well, that's natural for any title- bigger numbers always means bigger drop-offs. But it looks like at best, DC just grabbed their hardcore and nothing more- particularly since critical response to FC #1 wasn't fantastic. (It deserved better, IMO) Well, given SI's drop has completely levelled off as of June and DC are having woes with artists and delays.... I think we have an idea. Well there's a bunch of points to argue (i.e. how can you say SI's drop has leveled off when it isn't finished yet- it could both rise or fall dramatically before its completion obviously, the Ultimate Universe being the lower selling universe, which seems to be contrary to Marvel's editorial decision to bring so many elements of the Ultimate universe to the 616 titles, and I would personally question World War Hulk being a minor event- I think I counted about 36 titles in this checklist, which costs about a hundred bucks plus to buy) forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=170565but at least there are some numbers to go off of. I'm going to check on some of these myself and see if there are any other issues that help or hinder these numbers. but I am glad there's some quantification to the discussion. One thing is for certain, Marvel tends to create much more "need to buy" with their crossovers. I've been reading several books and the impact of Final Crisis is barely felt. whereas you can't read a Marvel book without needing to buy ten others right now. It's much more canny in terms of marketing. And I think Final Crisis is actually somewhat repetitive, very reminiscent of Grant Morrison's JLA Rock of Ages storyline in a lot of places.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 26, 2008 17:02:19 GMT -5
T I wonder if Marvel is just afraid to try to write stand alone stories anymore. Maybe they just don't feel like they have the talent? I doubt it's that so much as that every time they slap an event logo on something, sales explode. People continue to claim "Event fatigue", but it CERTAINLY hasn't translated int the sales- at least, not at Marvel. At DC, Final Crisis has been crushingly disapponting. I really wish you'd provide some facts to back this sort of statement up. For example in one of the links I provide they sales chart shows that Final Crisis isn't selling near Secret Invasion, but its dropoff is also far less dramatic. pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/08/05/dc-month-to-month-sales-june-2008/So it didn't start off well, but seems to be holding its core, whereas Secret Invasion dropped nearly 70,000 readers from one issue to the next. So who knows how the final numbers will all play out when everything is said and done? I don't mind if we bring up sales as a factor, they just need to quantified and examined if you're going to bring it up, right? Otherwise it's just an empty talking point with no reference. Agree disagree, folks?
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 19, 2008 12:38:44 GMT -5
Quality of the actual event is rather pointless to debate, if you ask me, because I predict that all but a few of us will automatically dislike it. However, in terms of crossing over into other titles, it depends on the event. Let's take last year's World War Hulk as an example. Obviously, Hulk's title is a logical tie-in. So are X-Men, Avengers: The Intiative, Frontline, and Iron Man are logical choices because they deal with certain elements that arise from the events of the crossover. Professor X's involvement with the Illuminati, Iron Man's absence from SHIELD during WWH, the Intiative's response, and the down-to-earth human element. Now, we've got other tie-ins. Ant-Man, Ghost Rider, Punisher, Heroes for Hire . . . what do these have to do with Hulk attacking New York? Not much. However, in terms of "Civil War," it's the complete opposite. This was a major event that changed the very way super-heroes lived on a day-by-day basis. There needed to be vast impact and we needed to see how all these different characters reacted to the changes set forth during "Civil War." And it worked. Each and every character had a motivation for doing what they were doing. We had insight to their goals and their opinions and their choosing of sides. "Secret Invasion" is somewhere in between "Civil War" and "World War Hulk" in terms of impact. Again, some titles are logical. Some deal with the main assualt, while others give the story a more wide-spread feel by dealing with the Skrulls in different parts of the world. However, we again have fairly useless tie-ins like Deadpool and Punisher War Journal. I have no problem NOT debating the quality of said events. The sales figures were interjected by another poster and the impression seemed to be that because sales were good, that the event was good. I presented an opposing viewpoint. That's all. And I don't have a problem with the scope of said events. A well written Punisher Skrull story would be fine. I am more concerned with both the Marvel Universe and the reader. As silly as it was when it would happen, the endings like that of the Infinity Gauntlet when everything was restored back to normal, were a necessary evil. Otherwise you're blowing up the biggest cities in the Marvel Universe every other week. And the impact of that is just as big as any villain invasion, in fact bigger. People need places to live and jobs to go to. You couldn't work a regular job in the current Marvel Universe. Cities would go bankrupt. The events also need to be more spaced out so they hit me a reader with more punch again. I now know every six months, Joe Q is going authorize a couple of high profile kills, some major upheaval and a big bang.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 18, 2008 20:46:15 GMT -5
I'll add a couple of things to this one. First I'm not merely concerned with sales. To me being able to push multiple covers better than the other guy isn't impressive to me. That has as much to do with marketing as anything else and doesn't speak to the quality of the product. However here are some numbers at least so people can gauge on their own the relative success of the product. Myself I think a storyline that has supposedly been in the works for several years should be doing a little better... I'm also glad that the guy at newsarama doesn't entirely understand the way they chart this stuff, and thinks it should be simplified as do I blog.newsarama.com/2008/06/16/that-has-to-hurt/www.newsarama.com/comics/080721-diamond-june-sales.htmlI especially like Marc Oliver Frisch who really examines the numbers and makes some sense of them, especially between the two mega events of the summer. pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/08/05/dc-month-to-month-sales-june-2008/Next, I think that it's not just a matter of sales, it's also reader overload. six months ago our time, Hulk absolutely ravaged the MU and before that Civil War absolutely ravaged the MU, and before that House of M totally warped the MU. In Marvel time that all happens in about a few weeks. For both me as a reader and for the MU to really recover so that these have some relevance and these things to have some impact they should be better paced. Right now, the MU New York can't possibly be rebuilt and the city should be a crater at this point. Just too much in every aspect. Believe me am not loving Final Crisis either, I read this storyline in Morrison's Justice League about ten years ago and it was only mildly good then.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 14, 2008 22:57:36 GMT -5
This flick was killed for me by the heightened expectations. Thought Heath was just okay. Effectively creepy, no doubt, but not much of a character arc. Alfred Molina as Doc Ock for example was a far more effective performance because I felt bad for him before and after his descent into villainy. Actually found the Two Face storyline MUCH better than Joker. Batman...Batman is just a brawler with toys. Where are the detective skills, the psychology, the power of suggestion? It's long been established that torture and physical violence don't work as coercion tactics. Why couldn't Nolan have come up with something better for Batman than trying to beat everyone up for information? How much better for Bats to use his intelligence and find someone's mental weaknesses and break them down that way? Lest you think I hated the film, I didn't. However, I did find given how complex and smart other fare from Nolan has been (can watch Memento over and over again, it's that good), I expected more of a true battle of wits between Bats and the Joker. I did love the ending. That really worked for me...
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 12, 2008 21:16:03 GMT -5
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz
I really don't mind the guy, but he's got pretty much the same origin (Power Broker) and abilities as Usagent. What stories are there to tell? The big boy scout thing was pretty much taken up by Cap and Quasar in terms of personality so I just see nothing in him.
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Aug 12, 2008 16:24:37 GMT -5
Not a great run as an Avenger but full of potential. I'd pick him far ahead of others like She Hulk. He had a great personality flaw wherein he thought he'd done it all already and the world should love him. His variety of powers weren't interesting but his first costume, the silver one with the piping, is pretty cool. Had his powers more variety instead of standard eternal fare (i.e. strength, flight), I would pull for this guy even more. far better choice than Ares to me... I intend to make a custom figure of him in the original costume someday.
|
|