The sum total of Speedy’s characterization in Green Arrow/Black Canary #2 amounts to “HEY I GOT AIDS PLUS I USED TO BE A HOOKER YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH THAT HUH DO YA?!”
Judd Winick? He’s Chris Claremont 2.0. I can’t think of a single reason to read his books, and I love Cliff Chiang.
Spider-Man 3 on DVD came out recently. I think I’ll wait off on it for the eventual Spider-Man 3.1 release. In honor of this movie, let’s look at the two debuting villains: the Sandman and Venom.
Venom made complete sense. I think most everyone with a brain knew how this was going to play out from the beginning. First movie would have to be Spider-Man’s top nemesis the Green Goblin. Second movie would have to be Doctor Octopus, who, while doesn’t have all that much of a personal connection to Spider-Man, is such a persistent villain that the public equates him as one of the other top bad guys. The third movie had to have Venom. Who else?
Yes, there are a ton of unused Spider-Man villains out there, but does Mysterio really have the star power of Venom? Do you really see 14-year-olds getting all giddy because they heard the next Spider-Man movie will have the Vulture? No. He may not be the most popular villain among the comic writers and especially Sam Raimi, but he certainly plays the third corner in the Big Three for Spider-Man’s rogues gallery.
The Sandman is a sensible addition because of his classic nature, trademark street clothes appearance and the potential of how his powers would look on the big screen. That and Thomas Hayden Church looked so perfect for the role it was impossible to say no to.
They are two very different villains. One is one of the originals, the other is a product of the late 80’s. One is a team player, the other is a loner. One is an overly-milked cash cow, the other isn’t known for starring in any major storyline. But they are mainstays in the comics and will remain so for some time. That begs the question, how often do Venom and the Sandman meet up in the comics?
As far as I can tell, there are three stories about the two of them butting heads. I won’t count minor appearances, like Mark Millar’s Marvel Knights Spider-Man run. Sure, Venom and the Sandman were both in it, but they had no real interaction. This also goes for any illusion or dream sequence or what-have-you for Spider-Man seeing an army of villains running towards him.
With the first Essential Luke Cage collection so fresh in my mind, it didn’t take me too long to finish off his solo series. Essential Luke Cage, Power Man Volume 2 covers from issue #28 to #49, plus an annual that Chris Claremont wrote. That’s good, since we’re cheated out of an issue. Power Man #36, which claims that “Chemistro is back! And deadlier than ever!” is really just a reprint of #12, the only Chemistro appearance up to that point. The nerve.
On the subject of them messing with us, the back cover of this book promises a guest-starring role by the X-Men. Bullshit. The closest we get is one panel of Iron Fist saying, “I just met the X-Men the other day.”
Except I didn’t read this for the X-Men cameos. I read this because back in the 70’s, the blaxploitation man-tank named Luke Cage was a ridiculously fun protagonist who beat up any jive sucka that looked at his metal tiara the wrong way. The last trade ended with a wacky, but somewhat heartfelt story about a dumb wrestler with a terminal blood clot who finds and drinks a random can of Super Soldier Serum and temporarily reaches his peak physical condition. It’s weird, but it has it’s right at home with the rest of the series and keeps the momentum going into issue #28.
Punisher: War Journal #12 came out this week. The whole Hate-Monger storyline went on a little too long, but since then, things have been looking up. The Bucky issue was a nice diversion and now we have this entertaining World War Hulk tie-in.
Here are three pictures of the issue for you. It’s okay, these aren’t much in terms of spoilers, unless you’re anal about it. Each picture is set-up for what you just know is going to be some sweet, sweet payoff.
Stuart is better than Microchip ever was. Stuart is an artist.
That last page and everything that follows makes me believe that Matt Fraction knows who I am and wrote this issue specifically to make me happy. If you enjoy it too, good for you, but that was never the point. It’s all about me. So there.
(Thanks, Mr. Fraction!)
In other news, Runaways is really losing me. Straying from the core plot mixed with delays makes me forget what the hell is going on.
Stay tuned tomorrow. I’m going to have a nice, full article up. I made it. For you. For Christmas.
I really like comics. Sequential art is possibly my favorite medium. But unfortunately not all comics are good and sometimes it’s necessary to show some tough love. Occasionally one must criticize books that fail at their intended goal and examine what precisely went wrong, for the sake of comics, because comics should be good. The recently completed White Tiger, written by Tamora Pierce and Timothy Liebe and drawn by Phil Briones and later Al Rio and Ronaldo Silva, happens to be one of those books.
Although it’s a niche book, I feel it deserves closer examination for a variety of reasons. It’s a spinoff of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s fantastic definitive run on Daredevil. It’s a comic about a legacy character. It’s a comic about a female character. It’s a comic about an ethnic character. It’s a comic by a popular novelist (and her husband) doing their first comics work. It’s also a comic that, so far, has done very badly in sales, dropping from 24,663 copies for issue #1 to 13,621 copies for issue #5.
Although stellar sales figures shouldn’t be expected from a niche book by an unproven creative team, the fact that the book shedded over ten thousand readers in the course of issues 1 to 5 means people just plain aren’t liking it. In an industry where new characters, even legacy characters, are hard to push and both ethnic and female characters are rare, it’s sad to see a book about a new ethnic superheroine fail so badly. But why did the book fail? After reading it, I have come to a conclusion: It’s a bad comic book, in just about every way. Let’s review. Bear with me: This will be long. Read the rest of this entry �
My peoples over at Funnybook Babylon have a pretty great series of articles up. Downcounting: A Guide for the Perplexed is a series of articles by one Chris Eckert. They’re bitingly funny, they’re incredibly mean, and they’re also extremely on point. Honestly, some of the best stuff I’ve read online in ages. Now that the other guy who was blogging Countdown quit out of disgust, this is pretty much it, too.
I mean, I realize that these are kind of long, but they’re worth it and are, in fact, better than reading Countdown itself. Just look at this:
And tell me that it isn’t genius.
Go check it out.
For a variety of reasons, I’ve been a bit lax on real content over the past few days. Blame it on how much the Battlemania thing took out of me, work in general, being distracted by the horrific news of that uncharismatic wrestler who went and Parallax’d his once-legendary legacy, etc. Either way, the work I have done has focused a bit more on the site itself. New headers and the like. hermanos has been on a roll lately, so it’s no great loss. I’m just fluff, while he writes actual content.
The point of this post is that I updated the Table of Contents for the first time in a while. It’s starting to get a bit thick and for any new readers, it’s probably not going to seem worth sifting through. I figure that hermanos, Wanderer and I should just mark various articles as “staff recommendations”. But I also think that you regular readers out there are just as qualified. So for those of you who do stick around, what 4th Letter articles are your favorites? What would you suggest to someone who had just stumbled upon this site?
On another note, A.o.D., the guy who brought us the Ultimate Rom: Spaceknight articles, has been crossing his fingers for the past several months ever since Annihilation: Conquest had been announced. He’s been hoping that Wraith, the dark gunslinger of the cosmos, is in fact Rom himself. Over time, his hope had died down, but recently, it’s stronger than ever.
Let’s look at the facts.
1) Wraith looks an awful lot like Rom’s human form, in all his “get a haircut, cyber-hippy” glory.
2) The Spaceknights have a pretty big role in Conquest already.
3) Rom’s enemies are the Dire Wraiths.
4) Marvel is unable to use the name Rom, nor are they able to show Rom as a cyborg. On the other hand, they can do whatever they want with Rom’s human form, his backstory, the rest of the Spaceknights and the Dire Wraiths. That explains his random human appearances, like at Rick Jones’ wedding or in Universe X.
5) Despite being so grim, Wraith seems to go out of his way not to kill a villain in the preview for his first issue. Rom also had a thing against killing.
6) Solicits did say that Wraith’s backstory would make science fiction fans happy.
I for one welcome our new post-cybernetic overlord!
Steve Epting went from this:
to this:
Patrick Zircher did very passable work on Cable/Deadpool. Good, not great. Here’s a few covers:
But, have you seen his Terror, Inc pencils?
Holy crow! What’s Marvel putting in the water? I know that there are a few other artists who have really manned up under Marvel’s iron fist, too. It’ll be interesting to see who else goes through big changes.
And yes, I realize Steve Epting came back with Crossgen or whatever, but still! His work is incredible.
No disrespect, but you a psycho, honey
Got that S.S.I. money and you start actin’ funny
Shrimps every night, ordering steaks
Them jumbo joints, them shits cost a buck fifty for eight
And when you told me your Merlot, need more grapes
I said “Honey, you never had wine before!”
And if you did, that’s not how you act at all
And no… that’s not how we rock in Theodore
–Ghostface Killah, “Tooken Back”
Sana Takeda (1, 2)’s cover to Heroes for Hire 13:
Jock (1, 2)’s cover to Green Arrow Year One:
Khari Evans (1, 2)’s cover to Shanna #1:
Last time it was Alex Ross’s boring Steel-on-a-black-background cover. This time it’s Sana Takeda’s ugly and creepy Heroes for Hire cover.
In exchange, I give you Jock and Khari Evans.
How do you go from a Michael Golden cover to something ugly and tentacle-rapey (also Misty is apparently not black) in a matter of months? Look at this:
I like cheescake comics. Bomb Queen, Cavewoman, those are funny books. But, Marvel, seriously– cheesecake is supposed to be attractive. Mewling little animu girls chained up around some slimy tentacles isn’t it. You’ve got the best artists in the biz and this is the best you come with?
Put Khari Evans on Heroes for Hire so that it will have good art again, please. I am for real here, I kind of like Shanna the She-Devil or whoever, but Khari is made for an ongoing book. He’s got a great style. Make him a Young Gun or whatever, push him hard.
About that Takeda cover… Marvel, that’s not how we rock in Theodore.
Get it together.
And you see, I don’t want to make the fucking comics. Making the fucking comics is hard fucking work. [snip]
But the fucking comics need to be made.
—Cheryl Lynn, Digital Femme, 1998
I said “Yeah, Flipmode, Flipmode is the greatest”
Knowing as a shorty, I was always told
That if I ain’t gon’ be part of the greatest
I gotta be the greatest myself
–Busta Rhymes, Extinction Level Event, 1998
Bear with me, as I have things what need saying. This will relate directly to comics and the blogosphere a little further down.
