Can I ask a small favor? Could you stop writing “I think,” “I don’t think,” “I feel,” etc. as part of your reviews? We know they’re your thoughts and feelings – they’re reviews, after all. Including those qualifiers just makes you sound uncertain.

(By the way, I’ve posted comments before as “Jesse,” but I’ve noticed someone else posting under that name, so I’m switching to my alter ego, half-man, half-manatee, the Dynamic Dugong code-named “Agent O” – “O” the Humanatee!*)

* Yes, this is silly.

I will admit to sorta admiring the ballsiness of the writers working in a character from the last (and, to my knowledge, ONLY) project they did for DC, which was FIFTEEN years ago

Just wondering — what character are you referring to, here? If you mean Tina McGee, she was in the comics for several years before their TV show. If you mean Mota, from the Flash 50th Anniversary Special, they weren’t involved with that book, as far as I can tell. (Mark Waid, Len Strazewski, Gerard Jones, and William Messner-Loebs, edited by Brian Augustyn.)

Not at all; I think the pro-registration side are definitely made out to be the bad guys (if, for the most part, deluded and well-intentioned bad guys). I was referring to Quesada’s stated intention: that is, that they’d provide “both sides of the story.” Clearly that isn’t happening. In and of itself I think that’d be lame and chickenhearted, since there’s no point in doing political commentary if you don’t have the guts to take a stand either way. As it is, Marvel’s writers pretty much are taking a stand, but editorially they’re maintaining that they’re not, which is just stupid any way you slice it.

14-22 for the 8/23 Week

14-16 for the 8/30 Week

Good showing for the 8/30 Week!

It would be one thing if the President was saying that in public, but if I recall the issue correctly he’s saying it to Deadpool. And, well, I can buy him behaving like a cartoon villain as a way of snarking at a guy who is little more than a human cartoon himself.

Deadpool was not in the room. It was just the President, Cable and the President’s Secret Service agents. Cable pleads to the President to stop the 50 State Intiative because of the future. The President tells him he doesn’t have to worry about those votes, then HAS THE SECRET SERVICE OPEN FIRE ON CABLE!!

Just ridiculously over the top behavior.

By the way, is he really supposed to be Dubya? He seemed like Generic Presidential Figure to me, like you’d see in a superhero movie.

Probably a mixture. He makes references to how the President likes to “make up nicknames” for people, a la Dubya.

But it’s political commentary. You’re allowed to put words in the mouth of your targets that they wouldn’t normally say. Look at any political cartoon or politically-themed SNL sketch. Of course those presidents aren’t acting like the real-life presidents, any more than the actual Richard Nixon would blow his brains out when confronted with Captain America. But the writer is trying to make a point, so this version of Bush is made to be more self-aware and cynical than the real Bush makes himself out to be.

And yeah, it’s supposed to be Bush, even though it looks nothing like him. While promoting Civil War on the Colbert Report a few months back, Quesada stated that George W. Bush is indeed the President of America in the Marvel universe, and the President that McNiven drew in Civil War #1 definitely is supposed to be Bush, albeit quite younger-looking. Meanwhile, the President in Cable & Deadpool looks absolutely nothing like this.

My guess is that either Nicieza, the art team and the editors made a conscious decision to change the president’s appearance to avoid courting too much controversy, or that nobody at Marvel really cares enough about the title to check how it actually tying into the continuity of Civil War at large. Given the fact that it was allowed to ship with a minor spoiler for CW #4 while several other comics that tie in to events in the main series were delayed, I’m guessing it’s more of the latter.

By the way, is he really supposed to be Dubya? He seemed like Generic Presidential Figure to me, like you’d see in a superhero movie.

So is Ultimates Annual #2 recommended or not? Don’t leave us in suspense!

Ha! Sorry ’bout that! I fixed it!

This is bizarre? Isn’t it pretty much standard practice for politicians to screw over future generations to appease current voters?

And if Cable were the one who pointed it out, then fine. But what President is going to ANNOUNCE he’s intentionally screwing over future voters?

Way too over-the-top villainy for a US President.

This is bizarre? Isn’t it pretty much standard practice for politicians to screw over future generations to appease current voters? Take the budget deficit, just for a start. Or global warming or nuclear proliferation or the colossal disaster that is the war in Iraq, for that matter.

The only thing I found objectionable in the Cable & Deadpool dialogue was that there’s no way George Bush is that self-aware (well, that and the scratchy art). But if you’re going to do political commentary, you might as well actually take a side, instead of going this mushball “middle of the road” route Joe Quesada claims they’re going. And given that Bush is polling at Nixonlike numbers, I don’t see any reason to hold back.

Also, you read a ton of comics. I bet nobody has ever pointed that one out.

And couldn’t find Eternals or Action Philosophers.

Basically agreed on both:

I’m buying Justice ’cause I like the JLA and the Legion of Doom and I’m certainly not buying the current iteneration of the Legion of Doom.

But geez. Here we are at issue 7. they shoulda been done with their first plot about two plots ago. Needs more stuff.

Solo was cool. Probably the least narrativistic/most purely conceptual book I’ve seen from a mainstream comics company ever. Gutsy, and cool.

On the Mainstream Marvel/DC front, Galactic Bounty Hunters is probably the most “COMICS OUGHTA BE FUN!” book out there. It’s weird: It totally feels like the writers and artists set out to write an entertaining story for a younger audience, like it was 1967 or something and people still liked comics where stuff happens.