This Week in Panels: Week 44
July 25th, 2010 by Gavok | Tags: agents of atlas, apocalypse, avengers, azrael, daken, darkstalkers, darkwing duck, deadpool, frankencastle, ghost, marvel zombies, panels, rip hunter, spider-man, taskmaster, wolverineI’m flying solo this week, since David’s off in San Diego, hanging out with his friends with the paper Goku hair. There’s still a shitload of comics featured this time around, mostly featuring Avengers stuff, Deadpool stuff and comics simply ending. The final issue of Marvel Zombies 5 simply confuses me in the sense of, “Seriously? That? That’s how you’re going to end the miniseries? Okay, if that’s how you feel.”
Age of Heroes #3
Fred Van Lente, Jefte Palo and various others
Atlas #3
Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman and Ramon Rosanas
Avengers #3
Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.
Azrael #10
David Hine and Guillem March
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors #3
Ken Siu-Chong, Eric Vedder and Joe Vriens
Dark Wolverine #88
Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu, Stephen Segovia and Paco Diaz
Darkwing Duck #2
Ian Brill and James Silvani
Deadpool #25
Daniel Way, Carlo Barberi, Duane Swierczynski and Philip Bond
Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #13
Victor Gischler, Bong Dazo, Kyle Baker and Matteo Scalera
Heroic Age: Prince of Power #3
Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Reilly Brown and Zach Howard
Lady Deadpool
Mary H.K. Choi and Ken Lashley
Marvel Zombies 5 #5
Fred Van Lente, Fernando Blanco and Frank Brunner
Marvelous Land of Oz #8
Eric Shanower and Skottie Young
New Avengers #2
Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen
Thunderbolts #146
Jeff Parker and Kev Walker
Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1
Dan Jurgens
Ultimate Avengers 2 #5
Mark Millar and Leinil Francis Yu
Welcome to Tranquility: One Foot in the Grave #1
Gail Simone and Horacio Domingues
Azrael has gotten a lot stronger now with Hine at the helm. Too bad I’m the only one reading it.
Sadly, my comic shop didn’t get WWE Heroes this week. I’ll tackle that pile of cheese next time.
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The pictures for Avengers and Atlas are mixed up
How was David Hine’s Azrael?
I think the picture for Dark Wolverine is missing.
Wow. I really botched that one. Fixed on both accounts.
@Debaser: It’s a definite improvement on the series. I thought Nicieza’s run was just good enough for me to keep going with it, but it was also dull enough (partially due to the art) that I had to remind myself who the different characters were when I picked up a new issue. This one is more explosive and I’m sure I’ll had a better idea of what’s what when the next one comes along.
I wish you could click on the panels and see a larger version of them.
Scrunchie of Death! ™
Prince of Power was hilarious as always.
Of all the things somebody could deem worthy of swiping from Geoff Johns, Marvel swiped the “Superboy Prime is living in his parents’ basement and bitching about DC Comics” BS? Good god.
@Prodigal: I’m guessing you mean the MZ5 panel? And not so much. Its still an odd way to end this arc of the series though…
That’s the one.
Gavok, you got my favorite moments out of New Avengers and Thunderbolts.
Quacerjack is now nightmare fuel.
@Paul Sebert: Definitely check out the issue if you haven’t already. Megavolt, Bushroot and Liquidator are collectively afraid of him now.
Gavok, what were your thoughts on the Darkstalkers revival? Was it a satisfying conclusion to a story that we waited almost five years to see complete?
@Psychoblue: Sorry, I forgot to get back to you on that one. The quick answer is no.
The longer answer is that it never had a chance in the first place. The Darkstalkers world doesn’t lend itself too well to comic book storytelling, unlike really every other fighting game. While the characters are unique and likeable, they’re so scattered that there’s virtually nothing linking them together. In Street Fighter, characters are linked together so you can easily tell a story. Ken is friends with Ryu who is the rival of Sagat who works under M. Bison who is hunted down by Guile. There are a million characters, but there are also relationships that keep you in the loop about who is who, which is why I genuinely enjoy the UDON Street Fighter comics.
What kind of connection is there in Darkstalkers? Demitri and Morrigan hate each other, Huitzil works for Pyron and Lilith is a Morrigan spinoff character, but that’s it. Even BB Hood and Talbain have nothing linking them other than he’s a wolf and she hates wolves. So you have all these colorful characters who are off to do their own unique things and you have to figure out a way to give them all panel-time while coming up with some kind of point-A-to-point-B. It reads a lot like a half-baked crossover event like Secret Wars II, where pieces of the event happen in different comics. Which makes it funny in retrospect how Morrigan mistakes Onslaught for one of Pyron’s friends in Marvel vs. Capcom, considering he basically is Onslaught in this comic.
So yeah, I knew it was going to fail from the beginning, but gave it a shot anyway. The art, nostalgia and the feeling that the game never got the popularity it deserved kept me going back for more.