Great Unified Comics Thread

[Ideologue]

I'm not sure that Kryptonians are capable of living completely at high speed, at least psychologically.  Remember, they're accustomed to living a very human-like life and they lack superpowers normally.  In fact, the one with the most experience with his powers is Superman himself.

It probably wouldn't be good for them, but if the other option is associating with barbarians, they're ultimately going to be lonely and sad anyhow.  Superman avoids this only by being socialized as human, so as not to be annoyed by them.

The point is, I thought it was kind of a shame that the most alien Krypton (Byrne's) was also the Krypton only Kal-El made it off of, because writing a survivor (Kara, or Zod, or whoever) as truly alien could have been an interesting concept.  Iirc they didn't start bringing back anybody, like Krypto the Terrifying Abomination, till they'd done away with the sexless, posthuman, Possibility of an Island-style Krypton entirely and reasserted the Silver Agey, like-Earth-but-with-more-headbands Krypton.

[Neil]

Yeah, I liked creepy, sexless cold Krypton.

Still, given the Kryptonian tendency to cover themselves with their weird mecha-jumpsuits, it would have been hard for a Kryptonian Kara to show enough skin to be marketable.

[Ideologue]

Yeah, I liked creepy, sexless cold Krypton.

Still, given the Kryptonian tendency to cover themselves with their weird mecha-jumpsuits, it would have been hard for a Kryptonian Kara to show enough skin to be marketable.

Which is why Supergirl will probably always be uninteresting and, at least since about 1995, an embarrassment.  Few people are willing to try anything more ambitious than the Superman one may feel secure masturbating to.

Of course, I haven't followed the relaunch series, because the entire first issue covered roughly what occurred in about three panels' worth in her 1962 introduction, and filled it with Supergirl fighting faceless, nameless guys in armored suits, which is the best way possible to really grab a reader's attention and keep them hooked.

[Ideologue]

Anyway, you know what was pretty great?  Fabian Nicieza's Legion Lost.  Terrible first issue, but everything between 2 and 6 was really good.  Pete Woods (of Paul Cornell's Lex Luthor-centric Action Comics run fame, or whatever the analogue is in a medium read by 100,000 people) is probably the second best artist working at DC today, and Nicieza, while not an amazing writer, is still serviceable at his worst and performed at least one spectacular feat: having government agents code name Tyroc "Lenny Kravitz," which is hilarious.

Tom de Falco's writing it now, and the world wonders why.  Also apparently Deathstroke's stupid daughter showed up.  I skipped that one because it wasn't drawn by Woods and a girl version of Slade Wilson just annoys me for some reason.

[Neil]

I've pretty much checked out of DC.  I tried to like them, I really did.  But other than Helspont's appearence in a couple issues of Superman, I haven't had much love for them.

[Ideologue]

I don't blame you, really.  Then again, the major alternative is Marvel, whom I doubt can produce anything of quality whatsoever, other than Daredevil, and that's only because Mark Waid is a colossus (and those Hispanic guys are really good artists).

As an aside: I can only imagine how much better the DC relaunch would have been if Mark Waid was in Geoff Johns' or even Dan DiDio's position there.  But then Waid has clearly had conversations and interactions with actual humans and used these experiences to make his writing readable and relatable, not to mention has an imagination more comprehensive than a five year old playing with his action figures or an executive looking to add new lines to his marketing spreadsheet, so maybe that's an unfair comparison.

Of the New DC stuff I started reading, the only ones I still care about enough to buy, and even then usually a month later so that it's discounted, are Legion Lost, the Flash, Batwoman, and in each case it is principally for the art (Amy Reeder, while okay, isn't a remotely adequate replacement for J.H. Willaims III on the latter, though; I wish they'd just shut down the series until he could do another five issues, because while I like the story well enough to want to see it, there is this gaping hole where the best comic book artist to ever live should be).

Oh, and I did buy the last Levitz LSH on a whim, and it was okay in the same way that the first issue of that series emphatically was not.  It had Dominators in it, kidnapping Legionnaires, it appears, to extract their genes.  Because coming up with new shit is evidently rather hard.  Nevertheless, it was basically competent and enjoyable.

I also bought a random issue of Morrison's Action.  It was really ugly; it was drawn by Andy Kubert, who sucks and who has always sucked, so I have no reason to be disappointed, but I did not know this before I bought it.  The story was alright but nothing that special, with a few things that probably seemed cleverer to Morrison than they did to me.

[Ideologue]

OK I have one more comic review!:

Worlds' Finest.  It has Kevin Maguire art, and also George Perez art.  It therefore receives an: A+.

It's about the Huntress and Power Girl or something.  It's okay, it's got cute moments, it's fun; it's good!  I just wish Kevin Maguire was drawing the whole thing. It's almost impossible to believe that man is like 60.  He's probably the only artist I can think of from the 90s who actually grew and developed, even changing his style to become more spare to accommodate the computer coloring revolution,* unlike some people I could name.** Gorgeous stuff and he just does not work enough.  I know he's supposed to be kind of slow, but here's the deal, DC: no one gives a shit about slow artists if they're that good.  Quit putting bad or mediocre artists on books just to pump out monthly product.  The solution to a slow-but-awesome artist is to change the schedule, not the human whose name sells your book.  Nor is the solution to make George Perez, a great man, but past his prime, look bad by putting him next to a living god.

Also, putting Dan Jurgens on JLI when Keith Giffen, J.M. de Matteis, and Kevin Maguire still exist and you have money to give them is as bad as the Holocaust.  Maybe, actually, a little worse.

*Jae Lee sort of counts.  He's grown a lot since 1993 or whenever he did Namor and Youngblood: Strikefile.  That said, even as early as Hellshock he was already riding the computer coloring wave.  Fun fact: Jae Lee doing superhero work again after a decade in the Stephen King Adaptation Mines is the only interesting and probably only redeeming thing about Before Watchmen.  Other than probably making Alan Moore expose himself as an it's-okay-when-I-do-it hypocrite again, which I suppose is worthwhile in itself, but that has nothing to do with the value of the comics themselves.
**Jim Lee.  Dude probably crosshatches the shit that falls in his toilet.  But that said, you know what I miss?  That weird Frank Miller-homage he was doing in Deathblow, decades ago.  Whatever happened to that?  He should have kept doing that. It was way cool.

[Ideologue]

You know who's fucking great?  Keith Giffen from the 1980s.  Hol-ee shit.  Reading some old Legion from around the time of the Great Darkness Saga, and it's just really, really beautiful.  Giffen makes it look easy, too.

I've read all of the Five Years Later Legion that he drew in the next decade, and it's really pretty too, and in a lot of ways more adventurous, but I dunno, I think I may prefer this, where he was more conventional but pushing a lot of stuff in terms of process and he varied the layouts somewhat more even while using the nine-panel grid as his bedrock (and, it must be said, when his blocking was a little more comprehensible).

Some choice panel sequences from Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 2, no. 296, cover date February 1983, although if I were going to do a full greatest hits from this issue I'd have at least one panel from every page, and have to transfer most of the pages uncut whatsoever:



Also, Paul Levitz used to be much better at his job.  I admit that I included the bit with Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet less for the art, although it is very fine, than because of the delight to be had from the fact that Colossal Boy refers to his penis as "the big time."  That is worth sixty cents all by itself, my friends.

[Syt]

Deadpool game is coming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6S2MoeCpvP4

[garbon]

Graphic novel about Trinity Project.

http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/jonathan-fetter-vorm-secrets-in-the-desert/

I took art classes alongside the author. I think I still have one of his art projects at home.

[Ideologue]

A comic about the atom bomb?  That sounds up my alley.

Anyway, I read Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright, the second redefinitive retelling of the Superman origin since Crisis on Infinite Earths (and not the last, because Geoff Johns has to put his scent on everything like a wild animal with no regard for how it might smell).

It was pretty good!  It's not great.  The last scene, however, is fucking heart-rending.  I cried.  Because I've got a soul.

(The art is okay I guess but Leinil Francis Yu ain't no John Byrne.  No sir.)

I liked that Waid's Superman was a vegetarian.

***

I think I also mentioned once that I'm working through a complete set of old Lois Lanes.  The Internet's been shitty since the sublessors switched to a new ISP, so I've fallen back on them as entertainment.  I probably mentioned before that these things are amazing.  I kind of wish they still made comics like this, but I'm not sure anyone even knows how to.  And obviously a three dollar price point for wacky bullshit is a little steep anyway.

[Habbaku]

I am absolutely in love with The Manhattan Projects.  Read it.

[ulmont]

I am absolutely in love with The Manhattan Projects.  Read it.

And available digitally.  I'm in.

[Ideologue]

I found an app that will let me read CBR files at work on my phone.

Could be slightly problematic with my Superman's Girlfriend and Action sets, since 1960s-style Lois Lane gives me a throbbing erection, but we'll manage.

[katmai]

Joss Whedon just became a very busy man.

The creator behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly is developing a live-action series featuring Marvel characters for ABC, Disney CEO Bob Iger said on a company earnings call Tuesday, according to Entertainment Weekly.


Iger also announced that Whedon would return to write and direct the upcoming Avengers big-screen sequel. Whedon, 48, wrote and directed the first movie, which brokethe  record for largest opening weekend ever ($207 million) in May and has since grossed $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

Details are scarce on the possible Marvel TV series, which would be Whedon's first show since Dollhouse got the axe in 2010.