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This Week in Panels: Week 1

September 27th, 2009 by | Tags: , , , , , , ,

This is a new idea I decided to play around with. Rather than write up reviews of every little thing we read every week, we would simply try to get our point across via This Week in Panels. Each week, the collective of 4th Letter would post panels from various comics that have come out that we’ve read. Good or bad, we’ll try to portray them through one panel and let you draw your own conclusions. No gigantic spoilers or anything like that. Just an attempt to show you the essence of what the comic is all about.

Hopefully Esther starts responding to my emails so we can have more DC representation.

Amazing Spider-Man #606
Joe Kelly and Mike McKone

Blackest Night: Superman #2
James Robinson and Eddy Barrows

Dark Reign: The List: X-Men
Matt Fraction and Alan Davis

Immortal Weapons #3
Rick Spears and Tim Green II

Incredible Hulk #602
Greg Pak and Ariel Olivetti

Invincible #66
Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker

Marvel Zombies Return #4
Seth Grahame-Smith and Richard Elson

New Avengers #57
Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen

Power Girl #5
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner

Giant-Sized Wolverine: Old Man Logan
Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

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Posted in This Week in Panels by Gavok |

14 comments to “This Week in Panels: Week 1”

  1. I feel a desire to try to translate what each panel means, but I fear it would just end in futility and wouldn’t be worth it.

         by Michael September 27th, 2009 at 11:12 --replyReply to this comment

  2. I clearly get what you thought of half the issues, but I’m at a lost to some of the others.

    Neat.

         by Nathan September 27th, 2009 at 12:52 --replyReply to this comment

  3. This is a fantastic idea! I hope everyone on the site decides to contribute. Really looking forward to this!

         by Kaare Bivin-Pederson September 27th, 2009 at 13:02 --replyReply to this comment

  4. “You’re Angry” has got to be the most hilarious thing I’ve seen all day.

         by Jordan September 27th, 2009 at 13:52 --replyReply to this comment

  5. @Michael: I think the whole thing comes off better without the context. If it truly catches your eye, you’ll see what it’s all about.

    @Nathan: I suppose the whole experiment isn’t so much a personal review, but saying “This panel is what the comic is.” That Incredible Hulk panel is a perfect explanation of what you’d see in that issue. The Blackest Night: Superman thing is me excitedly saying “Check it out! Psycho-Pirate!” mixed with “Look at that art! Yeesh!”

    But meanwhile, the Old Man Logan thing definitely leaves it up to you. Bruce Banner punching Wolverine with blood spraying everywhere while admitting to repeatedly fucking his cousin (I called that from the first issue, by the way) is a great way to sum up the comic. If you think that’s hilarious and it appeals to you, good for you. Go check it out. I wasn’t into it, but that’s my opinion.

    Also, it really says something about Invincible #66 that the best panel to sum it up is just someone talking. Not the most exciting issue.

         by Gavok September 27th, 2009 at 14:29 --replyReply to this comment

  6. “(I called that from the first issue, by the way)”
    Millar said this in an interview prior to release, plus it wasn’t that hard to figure out 😛

    “Not the most exciting issue.”
    It’s SPACE RACER

    ““Check it out! Psycho-Pirate!” ”
    Honestly, Nekron could have gotten up to 100% in a day if he just raised PP and dumped him in Time Square or something.

    Also part of me is sad he didn’t walk around with a hole for a face.

         by Nathan September 27th, 2009 at 14:44 --replyReply to this comment

  7. Curious . . . why not use Martha Kent’s last page instead of Psycho Pirate?

         by Jason September 27th, 2009 at 18:22 --replyReply to this comment

  8. 1) Psycho-Pirate > Martha Kent

    2) I want to shy away from full-page panels and spreads and the like.

    3) That’s the cliffhanger. It’s kind of cheating. It’s like if someone asked me about how Citizen Kane is and I told him “Rosebud is the sleigh he owned when he was a kid.”

         by Gavok September 27th, 2009 at 19:03 --replyReply to this comment

  9. Nice pick for the ASM issue; it expresses both the Spider-Writer’s continual little fairy dance as they skip over the issue of the marriage and the fact that Spider-Man is now, in his own book, made to be the equivalent of Ethan McmAnus, continually ‘the good guy’ who we must sympathise with no matter how many times he fails to deserve it.

         by Stig September 28th, 2009 at 00:25 --replyReply to this comment

  10. @Stig: I’m curious- do you read the series, or are you just going by what you’ve heard online?

         by david brothers September 28th, 2009 at 00:50 --replyReply to this comment

  11. @david brothers: I read it in the shop to see if anything’s gotten better/worse and then decide not to buy it. The writing is generally very poor, and I’ve lost all the previous respect and admiration I had for the character that was built up during JMS’ run. Amazing Spider-Man is no longer about Spider-Man anymore. It’s all about imitating Tim B^Uckley.

         by Stig September 28th, 2009 at 02:28 --replyReply to this comment

  12. @David: It’s not like Stig’s actually wrong.
    Speaking as someone who never really cared much for the character, if I had to rationalise why this was the case, I’d say it’s because an objective evaluation of Spidey reveals him to be a massive and unrepentant dick – beginning with his origin which establishes he needs guilt as a motivating factor to help people, otherwise he just wouldn’t bother.
    Leaving aside the massive douche he was/is and how this caused someone’s death, the constant wisecracks also make him read – to me – as a bit of a bully.

         by AlLoggins September 28th, 2009 at 02:33 --replyReply to this comment

  13. @AlLoggins: Yet under JMS, he was actually LIKEABLE. He helped people out of the goodness of his heart and was loving to his wife and used his intelligence. This current one is basically a what-if Flash Thompson became Spidey. He’s more of an arsehole than ever.

         by Stig September 28th, 2009 at 04:41 --replyReply to this comment

  14. @Al

    I’m not sure you’ve ever actually read a Spider-Man story.

    @Stig

    I think you need to learn the difference between “arsehole” and “loveable loser”

         by Jake September 30th, 2009 at 08:59 --replyReply to this comment