Upskirt

I don’t know how many of you are reading X-Men Die By The Sword. Seeing as the readership for both Exiles and New Excalibur is fairly low and tends to be the same people, I doubt it's a whole lot of you.

Half of the people seem to like it as it’s a Claremont book, while the other half seem to read it too bash it. I don’t want to do either. I do feel Claremont hasn’t hit one out of the park with me since X-Treme X-Men but he is one of my favourite all time writers so I won’t sit around pulling him apart.

What I do want to talk about is this art. I respect artists so much because they can do something I could never even dream of doing, I find art so hard. I can see what I want to in my head but getting on paper is impossible.

So the guy doing it, Juan Santacruz, is far more talented than I can dream of. With that being said there are some brutal panels in this book. It’s not they lack talent it’s just they make me embarrassed to me a comic reader.

From the looks of things the letterer has had to do anything he can to cover up this “upskirt” shots. While he’s done the best this just seems to add more attention to this immature cheesecake shots.

What are these shots meant to add? I’d argue nothing. This guy can draw superheroes. He can draw a fight and he can pay stuff out just fine. These three panels take so much away from his work. It’s a shame he feels the need to draw these.

It’s really pathetic. I expect more.

guggenheim

In a past blog I spoke about how much I loved guggenheim’s work on Wolverine, so much so that his name deserved to be written up in all capitals. If you haven’t already guessed his return to the book is less then stellar and he has now been demoted from all capitals.

Not only is the story full of inaccuracies such as Tank’s and Nazi’s in World War One but it’s just another attempt at making Wolverine much more complex then he needs to be.

The character isn’t that deep. He’s had a crap life and he kicks ass because it’s the right thing to do and he partly enjoys a scrap… at the same time he’s always running the risk of crossing that line between good and evil. It’s worked for years now and it’s what has made the character popular.

Now Marvel have always seemed to want to tamper around with his history and such, which I understand as when you have a character who doesn’t know their past in fiction it is going to bite them in ass at some point.

Here they just seem to want to give him crappy shock value twists to his power set. In the past year we’ve found out he’s an evolved mutant wolverine. This idea was rejected years ago and it should have stayed that way.

Now we find out every time he dies his spirit has to fight the devil in order to rejoin his healing body.

Really… Why? Does this add anything to the character? I have to say no, it just makes him far more confusing then he needs to be. It also brings up many questions of just how his healing factor works.

If he comes out of this with a reduced healing factor so the fear of him dying is there, even if we know it won’t happen, I’m all up for it. For now all we have is a really mediocre comic.

I hope this is just a misstep on guggenheim’s part. This is entirely possible as he is still fairly new to the game. I hope his work on Amazing Spider-Man is better. I have my caps lock waiting.

Note: I did love how Wolverine still manages to cup his "member" which both hands, while dead.

Hype Machine Part 2

Okay, so the announcement was Captain America is coming back. They’ll be a new person in the suit and he’ll be a little more hardcore (he has a knife and gun!) but the icon is coming back.

I won’t judge the idea because I haven’t read the story yet. I trust in Ed Brubaker so chances are I’ll enjoy the story.

What I do want to comment on is Marvel’s advertising of this “event”. I understand why they’ve done this, making it seem like a big announcement. They want the people who ran to comic stores to buy Cap’s death to run back and see his replacement. I get that and I understand it.

But... why leave it this long? When Captain America died we had 2 or 3 months of people speculating who would replace Captain America. You couldn’t go in any comic shop without it being discussed, you couldn’t log onto a message board without seeing at least one “Who will be the new Captain America?” topic. On holiday in a place totally unrelated to comics someone I just met started talking to me about Captain America’s death. It was huge news and that hardly ever happens in comics!

Then Fallen Son #5 hit and we were told no one would replace Captain America. So everyone let out a collective “Oh…” and walked off to discuss the next Internet topic be it Skrulls, Green Arrow or Countdown sucking.

Now Marvel has chosen the time to get us all excited for this replacement but no one seems to care. Everyone got out all the excitement and anticipation months ago. If you ask me, they waited too long to try and encourage this speculation.

Hype Machine

Just a quick one today, as you can tell university has been very buys these first few weeks. I apologize but I'm doing my best.

Marvel seem to be hyping a big announcement for tomorrow at 12pm, click here to see it. I've got to admit, I'm interested in how this one will turn out. I always pay attention when companies decide they are going to announce they are going to announce something. Most of the time it turns out to be nothing but I always enjoy the antipitation and when it really does take you by suprise like the Nintendo Wii for example it's great.

So expect an update on this tomorrow. Speculation seems to be looking at Joe stepping down at EIC or a countdown series to the Skrull Invasion, I'll guess we'll soon know.

Dematteis Da Man?

JM DeMatteis recently posted on his blog found over on Amazon that he has finished working on his first Spider-Man story in 10 years. While he wrote an ok Spider-Man during and after the Clone Saga he will always be known for his Kraven's Last Hunt story and so discussion on this announcement has lead to Kraven talk, rather then any of the other Spidey books he wrote.

I have to admit something about this story... I didn't like it that much. I mean it was good and well written but it's one of those stories that are discussed so much and so often that by the time you get it, it can never live up to the hype.

All the twists and turns, all the character insight, everything you want from a good story has already been told to you a thousand times before hand that when you finally read the story, it feels like you are just rereading message boards or reliving comic store discussions.

So I'll be interesting in reading this story just to see if I like DeMatteis' work rather then any sort of legendary status he has gotten.

If you haven’t already Kraven’s Last Hunt do so. I won’t expand on it for obvious reasons.

Annually Retentive

I think the Annual's Marvel has put out over the past 2 or 3 years have been excellent. They really mattered but if you had no interesting in the subject (Luke Cage and Jessica Jones marriage in New Avengers for example) you could skip over it and save $4. You didn't miss anything vital but anyone who wanted to buy it got something they could care about. It was the perfect happy medium.

I picked up the Immortal Iron Fist Annual this week though and we seem to have faltered. It was nothing more but part 3 of a story. Infact, it was the cliffhanger of the issue 9. Now if you don't pick up the annual up you're lost. To be fair the previous issue warned you about this but I can't help but feel this is taking a step in the worn direction.

I used to complain that Annuals were nothing but an oversized one-shot which was usually a bad story, with very little importance. It was a way of charging you more money once a year.

This however is forcing people to pay $4 for another part of a story they are already invested in. It's taking advantage. I hope we don't see to many of these and go back to the Bendis formula.

My Claim to Fame

This is perhaps the saddest blog you will ever see, so bookmark it... this is history in the making.

I knew something Dan "Brain of the Marvel Universe" Slott didn't!

Click to enlarge, Orignal Topic Here

Yes, I am that sad that I'm posting this. This is the result of a slow comic week, Slott's reputation and my need to inflate my ego.

Really it gives me the chance to bring Slott up and tell everyone to go out and pick up Avengers: The Initiative and Amazing Spider-Man. Also I get to thank him for a great run on She Hulk. The only reason I picked up this book was because of talking to Slott online. He's a very talented writer and he's only getting better.

The W’ong Wong

So I got New Avengers #34 today and it turns out I was wrong. They didn't share their pasts; they showed how they see themselves... I liked mine better although I guess it would rule out the "Embarrassing History" jokes Bendis loves to do.

Now I’m assuming all this “There is a Skrull on the team” stuff is going somewhere and isn’t just setting up the atmosphere of the Secret Invasion crossover.

But at the minute it’s kind of heard to think any of the team are Skrull, they’ve passed two Doctor Strange tests now and Bendis made fun of the idea of “Sleeper Skrulls” in this issue so that can’t happen.

So who do I think is a Skrull in New Avengers now?

Wong.

No one suspects him but he’s in a position where he could screw with one of the top teams and many of the top players in the Marvel Universe. I bet he drugs the tea.

Hitting their stride

The Stan Lee and Jack Kirby run is legendary and changed comics forever. Don't try to argue that, it's fact. The old style of comics from the 60's may not be everyone's cup of tea, which I understand, but you have to respect what they did.

If you ask most people who had the honour of reading this run, they usually cite issue 30 as when the team really clicked and their creativity just exploded. I want to argue about this.

I assume people normally sum up runs as whole numbers as it's easier to remember then say 29 or 31. So I understand why everyone says this is when they really "got" the characters but I want to make it clear I think that point should be five issues earlier.

Fantastic Four #25-26 are amazing comics! It's a two part story which for the most part is Thing getting his ass kicked by the Hulk but he keeps getting back up, even if he knows he could die doing it.

This is when Ben Grimm clicked. For the first 15 issues or so the Thing was a hardass and was always complaining. For the next 10 or so the Fantastic Four kept saying they loved him but the audience had no real reason to... every other issue he was starting fights and threatening to either take over the team or quit.

This story kicked off a feud that every writer seems to want to write at least once, Hulk vs. Thing.

This was just good comics. Really, if you get the chance pick it up. The Fantastic Four Omnibus is a great read if you can get over the high price tag.

Okay! I believe you!

I’m a big fan of the X-Men. I own the run of Uncanny X-Men, bar 30 or 40 issues I’m still hunting for. The Claremont run stands up there with the best runs we’ve ever seen and it had defined the X-Men ever since. That is part of the problem with the X-Men these days. For the most part they are coasting, doing the same thing they’ve done for 40 years. You get the odd big moment like the destruction of Genosha… but nothing really changes. We will never get human and mutant equality so all you can hope for is some good stories from good writers.

So when Marvel started up the hyped machine and inserted Messiah Complex I wasn’t too excited. At the end of it, we’d get the same old stuff. Perhaps the mansion would blow up (which the image to the right could be showing) which is an X-Men event requirement and we’d get a random lottery of characters to appear in the main 3 books. Changes yes, but major? No. It’s the same old stuff just with a new look.

I logged onto Newsarama this morning to find a surprising news piece. The new line-up to X-Force.

It’s a line-up change but is it just a line-up up change? I’m not sure. Looking at that image we seem to be looking at some kind of mutant strike force. These guys don’t mind kicking ass, and are all killers at one time or another. Their outfit colours also seem to match the idea of being a black ops team.

I have to say I’m upset that it looks like Brubaker isn’t writing Warpath anymore, although he could still be writing X-Force for all I know, as he has been the real breakout character in his Uncanny run. That being said the X-Men needing a secret strike force perhaps does mean that we are getting a real status quo change.

Of course it’s just as likely I’ve bought into the hype and we’ll get the same old, same old.

New Avengers #34 Speculation

Newsarama are showing off the cover to New Avengers #34, and playing the mystery card. I figure seeing as I’m hyped for this Secret Invasion (The title to the Skrull storyline) I’d take a quick shot at what I feel it means.

Apparently in the issue Doctor Strange does something to temporarily get the team to trust each other. Armed with this information and the cover I’m speculating that Doctor Strange shares the entire teams history with each other. This will allow them to see their past and understand where they are coming from and why they do what they do. This would certainly help out their trust issues.

The only part of the cover I’m not sure on is the female Daredevil. I’m not family with Echo’s origin (although it is on my Wish List) but did she ever dress up in Daredevil’s costume? Anyone? Little help?

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down…

And you can’t keep a bad man down either. I don’t know if you were one of the 10 people who read The Irredeemable Ant-Man series but it was really good and produced a great character. There aren’t many characters out there that are only superheroes because they want to pick up women and even fewer heroes who play on the Wii with the villain Black Fox.

It was announced at Baltimore that the Eric O’Grady character will be jumping over to Avengers: The Initiative now that his own series has been cancelled. This move happened, apparently at the request of Kirkman so I assume we are going to get the same tool, we have come to love.

If anyone was fit to take over Ant-Man from Kirkman, it’s Dan Slott. Count me in as a fan of this move.

Blogging Baltimore

For the uninformed, this weekend is Baltimore Comic Con. If I’m completely honest, I had forgotten. This is the first con since the site news so I figured I’d introduce what I’d do with any news we get from it. You can expect lots of smaller blogs covering any news I find interesting. We’ll see how it goes, shall we?

The first piece of news that I am excited about is the new Young Avengers mini hitting stores in January. It’s entitled “Young Avengers Presents” and will feature a whole bunch of different writers taking turns to focus on members of the team.

I feel in love with these characters during their first 12 issue series and sadly their Civil War mini series and guest appearances haven’t been anywhere near the quality we got when we first met them. So I am worried we are going to get another Zeb Wells series, I have to hold out hope that it can be good. It’ll be no Heinberg but with his schedule I doubt we’ll get another series written by him in a long time.

In The Interest Of Fairness

According to a new Videocast on Marvel’s websites Mark Millar and Brian Hitch plan to return to The Ultimates in 2013. After complaining about DC hyping Final Crisis long before, in an apparent desperate attempt to sell Countdown I thought this was worth mentioning.

I think this is going to hold the record for longest tine between announcement and release.

*Insert joke about #2 coming out in 2015 here*

This does remind me that I need to pick up the back issues of Ultimates 1 and 2 sometime.

He's The Juggernaut!

I don’t think I’ve every uttered the phrase “He’s a bad writer”. I may not like a certain writer but I have respect for anyone who picks up a pen and writes, the vast majority of them are infinitely more talented then me so I have no write to judge in terms of being a good or bad writers. All I can do is offer my opinion on their work and their choices.

One writer would come close to the term bad writer and that is Chuck Austen. I’ve tried so many of his comics and tried to find something to enjoy. I’ve asked so many people for their opinions but no one seems to get his work. Hell I recently read an interview with Austin’s Avengers artist Scott Kolins where even he admitted he didn’t have a clue what Chuck Austen was doing.

There will always be one thing though that I can say he did well though. He redeemed the Juggernaut. I’ve always loved the Juggernaut. He was a villain that when you saw him on the cover you knew your favourite superhero was in for a beating and you were going to get some beautiful and chaotic art as it unfolded. The X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk. Everyone was afraid of the Juggernaut. He was a great badass villain.

I’ll admit that some of crimes he’s committed over the years made it kind of stupid to try and redeem him but those were quietly forgotten and I enjoyed watching him try to put his past behind him. He became a guy who always had to keep himself in check but at the same time enjoyed kicking heads in, he was just on the opposite side to which we had become accustomed too.

With World War Hulk: X-Men #3 it seems Juggernaut has given in and is soon going to return to his old ways. It’s regrettable, as I don’t think anybody really did anything with Juggernaut after Austen left, and he now joins the likes of Mystique and Magneto who join the team only to revert to form.

I will buy whatever comic he shows up in next because as I mentioned I’m a fan of him as villain or hero but I am a little sad it appears it is over. There was so much more they could have done with him.

Justice is Frightening

I’m a Spidey nut born and breed. Due to that I am bound by law to enjoy the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn is a fabulous character. He is a bitter and tormented sole but with reason to be so. He is the flip side to Peter, using his brains and strength to try and gain him money rather then use it to help the world. But let’s face it, he was stale.

His return at the end of the Clone Saga was shocking and was cool to see for the thousands of people who weren’t around when Osborn was first tormenting Peter. After an interesting run as co. owner of the Bugle who spent every waking hour making Spider-Man’s life a living hell he fell into a rut of popping up every few years, pulling the crazy card and being beat by Spider-Man.

We got the odd great story like Jenkin’s Death In The Family but for the most part they were all the same story. Every other good villain Spider-Man had seemed to be neglected to nostalgia and beat down. They filled time until Green Goblin was going to ruin Peter’s life again.

During this time I stuck by theory that Osborn is a great character and would work wonders if only the writer’s took him out of his safety zone. Get him away from Peter and let the other heroes of the Marvel Universe feel the wrath of the Green Goblin.

At the time he was focused on Peter, but all it would take was a good writer with the right idea to make him a villian in the grander scheme of things. He did start of wanting to be a crime boss after all.

This year with the fall out of the Civil War we got my hopes and dreams for Norman in Thunderbolts. Over half a year in and I still can’t figure out if Ellis is writing this whole book tongue in cheek (some parts definitely are… Stabby Joe, anyone?) but either way I’m enjoying it.

Thunderbolts #116 was a great issue for me that proved that Green Goblin in the Marvel Universe can and does work. The issue was mostly a discussion between Norman and Moonstone. Fairly mundane and easily to make boring but Ellis pulled it off perfectly. This issue reminded me of a serial killer couple. Criminal experts have taken real life examples and claim that if the two disturbed minds hadn’t met they may not of had a chance to reek such havoc. This issue showed these minds meeting and I boy do I feel sorry for the first person who tries to cross these two.

Make Mine Goblin, Marvel. But please… don’t make him a Skrull.

If an X-Man dies in space, do the fans make a sound?

Perhaps Blindfold saying someone was going to die months ago softened the blow. Perhaps the cover of a limp Cyclops body in space gave it away. Or perhaps its because no one, including Marvel staff can seem to decide if this story takes place months ago, and therefore we know the death is reconed!

Really, doesn’t anybody care that Cyclops died in Astonishing X-Men #22? I mean this the leader of the fricken’ X-Men. He bites the big one and people just don’t care about it. This is one of those things that should have been spoiled for me, I shouldn’t have been able to check my emails without friends letting it slip.

The only reason I can find for why no one cares is because of Astonishing X-Men’s biggest problem, that of delays.

With the impossible task of placing this in continuity people are just assuming that he’ll be back before the end of Whedon’s run with #24. But is he? The answer of where Astonishing takes place changes every week and it only gets more confusing as the X-Verse around it continues to change. Everyone seems to have a different answer to if this takes place before Messiah Complex or after. Not to mention the fact if the last three issues of the book had come out on time he would of appeared in Cable and Deadpool and New X-Men after his apparent death.

If it’s before then I can see why no one seems to care because he’ll be back in 2 issues. If it’s after then Marvel pulled off perhaps the worst death ever.

With comics for the longest time you’ve had fans crying foul because we all know the dead characters will come back, it may take an editorial team change but it’ll happen. You have to really make an effort to get people to respect the death, even if they will never completely believe it. When you confuse people to the point they haven’t got a clue if he’s dead or alive, even though you kill him on the page in front of them you have a problem. A huge problem.

Hell, I’m writing this and I still can’t decide if he’s dead or alive… I bet he’s alive and the big death is Lockheed.

Kirby Kolouring

I like Jack Kirby. I wouldn’t put him up their with my favourite artists, mostly because I’m so far removed from it’s original release and his work now has a legendary status it would be one of the most biased choices I’ve ever made. Instead he’s up their with Stan Lee as one of the creators I most admire. Comics wouldn’t be what they are today without those two men. I refuse to choose between the two in terms of who created who, instead I see them as a team. Sadly, those two couldn't see it the same way.

One common criticism I hear from people who are more used to the 90’s and today’s stuff (which I’ll admit I fall under) is that his art is simple by today’s standards. That is simply not the case. I was looking in the back of my Fantastic Four Omnibuses and looked online at some of his amazing untouched pencil work. The guy put in just as much detail as some artists today.

The reason I think it looks so simple is that it’s been scanned and reproduced from it’s original look and the biggest factor is the colouring. The old colouring was so simple and a lot of the time washed out the detail of the pencil and ink work.

One of the biggest, and perhaps most underrated change to comic books over the past 10 years is the advance in colouring. Colouring adds so much to comic books today and it’s a huge factor in setting the mode and brining life to art. It can make a talented artist a superstar; can you imagine Steve McNiven’s art without his colourist?

What I would like to see in an attempt to show newer fans that Jack Kirby is just as talented as people say and also to show people just how vital colouring is too today’s high standards of art is a one shot reprinting some of Jack Kirby’s pages by today’s top colourists.

I think it would be a unique experiment and very interesting comparison from 60’s art to today’s art.

GUGGENHEIM!

What a crap title I hear you say? Well yes it is but Wolverine has been so bad under the pen of Jeph Loeb (although beautiful under Simone Bianchi’s pencil) that GUGGENHEIM’s name deserves to be a title all by itself. He also deserves his name to said in capitals… GUGGENHEIM!!!

I like Wolverine as a character. In today’s comics world that comment can get you killed. I will add the stipulation to my liking him, that of I don’t like him being overused to extent every story he appears in is worthless as no one can do anything meaningful with him but thankful that has calmed down a bit. He only appears in two solo ongoing books and two team books now. A slight improvement over four team books and an ongoing.

GUGGENHEIM produced one of the finest Wolverine solo arcs in a long time with his Civil War tie in so I am welcoming him back with open arms. I wish he had never left the title to make way for Loeb and his evolved wolfmen. That arc was a horrible disaster and should never be mentioned again.

If you’ve dropped Wolverine after the horrendous arc or have never bought a Wolverine, or indeed any, book by GUGGENHEIM do yourself a favour and pick up Wolverine #57 next week.

Weclome back GUGGENHEIM, please don't ever leave us again.

The Cost of a Crossover

I think I’ve reached the point where I am crossovered out. I’m excited for the premise of the Skrull Invasion and I love the creative team on Final Crisis but a big part of me is crying “ENOUGH!!!”.

So I’m going to toy with myself and show me just how expensive these crossovers are.

Marvel and DC often say that you don’t need to buy every issue of the crossover but that argument rarely sticks. It’s almost impossible to create a crossover event where you don’t need to read at least one tie-in and the amount of success these events have, it’s obvious people buy a lot of, if not all of the tie ins. Plus, why would a publisher put a product they really don’t want you to read?

Anyway, every now and then I will take a look at just much these events would of cost you when it first came out. Of course, there is a good chance you’d have to pay more for these now or in the future…

So without future ado, the real price of Civil War.

Prologues New Avengers Illuminati Special: 3.99 Fantastic Four #536-537: 5.98 Amazing Spider-Man #529-531: 8.97 Civil War Opening Shot Sketchbook: Free Marvel Spotlight Millar/McNiven : 2.99

Total: $21.93

Civil War Civil War #1-7: 12.96 She-Hulk #8: 2.99 Wolverine #42-48: 17.94 Amazing Spider-Man #532-538: 17.94 Civil War: Front Line #1-10: 29.90 Thunderbolts #103-105: 8.95 New Avengers #21-25: 14.95 Fantastic Four #538-542: 14.95 X-Factor #8-9: 5.98 Civil War: X-Men #1-4: 11.96 Cable & Deadpool #30-32: 8.97 Black Panther #18, 21-25: 17.94 Young Avengers and Runaways #1-4: 11.96 Daily Bugle Civil War: 0.50 Ms. Marvel #6-8: 8.97 Heroes for Hire #1-3: 8.97 Civil War Files: 3.99 Captain America #22-24: 8.97 Civil War: Choosing Sides: 3.99 Iron Man #13-14: 5.98 Punisher War Journal #1-3: 8.97 Civil War: War Crimes: 3.99 Iron Man Captain America: Casualties of the War: 3.99 Winter Soldier: Winter Kills: 3.99 Moon Knight #7-10: 11.96 Ghost Rider #8-11: 11.96 Blade #5: 2.99 Civil War: The Return: 2.99

Total: 269.30 Prologue + Civil War: 291:23

Epilogues Civil War Frontline #11: 2.99 Captain America #25: 3.99 Civil War: The Confession :3.99 Civil War: Battle Damage Report: 3.99 Fantastic Four #543: 2.99 Marvel Spotlight Civil War Aftermath: 2.99 Wolverine #48: 2.99

Total: 23.93 Civil War + Prologue + Epilogues: 315.16

Unmasking Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man #11-16: 14.95 Sensational Spider-Man #28-34: 20.93

Total: 35.88

The Grand Civil War + Prologue + Epilogue Total: 351.04

Three hundred and fifty one dollars, four cents… Three hundred and fifty one dollars, four cents… Three hundred… really, do I have to sum up this staggering price or does it speak for itself?