Still, it must have worked for what it was, because until I read this article, it never actually occurred to me that there are so few periods, or that the punctuattion was awkward in any way.

I totally need to dig those issues out and take another look at them.

Though, since we're on the subject, I'd just like to point out that people can bash Secret Wars all they want, but I've always found it to be FAR better than a lot of stories that came before, and certainly a lot that have come since. Hell, I'd say it's still better than a fair amount of what's on the market NOW. I felt that way when I was much younger and just drawn to the spectacle of it all, and I definitely feel that way now even after years of reading both good and bad stories, and getting a feel for what I think works in the visual narrative medium and what doesn't.

Becase one of the things that I really enjoyed about comic books was the way they could get across story and characterization through what was oftentimes a gratutious fight scene."
What story? The old school comics were all about re-telling the same story every issue (a villain causes problems, hero and villain battle, hero wins, end of story). There was NO character development. The plots were so simple that you would think they were aimed at 5-years old kids. And the characters were so boring and one-dimentional that you couldn't take them serious. If I wanted that crap, I would watch the kiddy action cartoons you can see on TV.

I love the start of Tom DeFalco's FF run. He brought back a Lee/Kirby feel (which should be done once in a while, though not all the time). Look at issues 358 to 360: three cool new villains in as many issues. Unfortunately, he went full-blown soap opera shortly thereafter. But say what you will about the stories, DeFalco nailed the characters. I'll take his FF over Steve Englehart's any day of the week (and definitely his Johnny Storm over Mark Waid's).

Like any comics writer, DeFalco's had his good titles and his bad. He seems to be in a good patch now. I haven't read much SPIDER-GIRL, but I hear it's a real breath of fresh air.

- Z

Becase one of the things that I really enjoyed about comic books was the way they could get across story and characterization through what was oftentimes a gratutious fight scene.

Since we're talking about SW, I remember that determination, frustration, and courage came across clearly in Wasp's running battle against the X-Men. It was the first time that I'd ever actually cared about her.

I remember how all the other characters kinda dissed on Spider-Man, but he really came through in his fight against Titania. And, not in a power-house way, but in a way that really explained his character and why he acted the way he did.

Now, I can get that sort of thing out of Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, or the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoons (or, even Ben 10). But, the depressing part is that these cartoons, and movies (like Spider-Man 2) encourage me to go back to comic books. But, they inevitably bore me with endless dialogue and no action.

Seriously, I get more action out of some CD audio dramas than out of many recent comic books. So, when it comes time to decide, do I spend time reading Batman, or set my DVR for The Batman, the DVR wins out not because it is cheaper, but because it delivers the better experience.

I feel that some current comic book writers (and artists) have forgotten that the artist should express characterization with body language and poise, and have instead become hacks who tell us how a character is feeling rather than showing us.

Theno

Would I get up in arms about a text-switch like that? No, not really. Just because it's not what I'm used to, it doesn't mean it's bad. Like they say, the only reason a complete page of italic text looks odd is because you don't see it regularly.

I really noticed this use of exclamation marks in its absence. In the Australian edition that I read, most of the content was American, but occasionally you'd get a piece from a local cartoonist. Most of the Australians hadn't worked out how to use the exclamation mark joke code, and their gags were never as funny.

... what if you don't like video games?

Seriously, this question bothers me when people say it's okay for all superhero action to be delivered up in stuff like the movies, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and cartoons, so the comics should be free to be as insane and non-traditional as possible.

What if you want to see that kind of stuff in a comic book, where it started? There's the Adventures line, but for the most part that's pretty weak stuff compared to even average Marvel output from the 80's, let alone a pretty above-average package (for the time) like Secret Wars.

Myself, I like Secret Wars. The totally artificial premise lent itself well both to constant action, selling a toy line, and one of Jim Shooter's main writing strengths, the ability to characterize. Toward the end Secret Wars is about nothing but the character's personalities, setting a pattern for later Marvel crossovers to pattern themselves after. Sadly, Secret Wars's insane premise lent itself much better to that sort of thing than some premises Marvel and other publishers tried to use later on, although certainly some improvements on the original model happened, too.

In some ways Secret Wars was kind of the inverse of the sort of superhero mega-crossover that Crisis on Infinite Earths pioneered; Crisis was all about having a grand plot and shoehorning characters in where they fit, while still trying to fit in as many characters as possible. The result is an immense book where characters feel more or less "right", yet characterizations tremendously lack detail.

Yeah, that's provided in one of the links above.

Well, Ok. But the Boogie Girl fight in Powers is one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen, so that kinda makes up for it.

And I feel bad for poor Daredevil, but it could be worse; Wasn't the Golden Age Green Lantern replaced by his dog?

Tom DeFalco’s totally lame scripts. DeFalco had originally ruined Thor to the point of cancellation before Walt took over the book with a then-radical new approach and style, and shot the book into the top ten practically overnight. When DeFalco became EIC, he reportedly took unfair advantage of his being the Marvel EIC back then to secure two flagship titles, and because of his being embarassed over his run on Thor, decided to try again, and put the book on it’s perpetual slide that not even Oeming’s stellar work could stem away from cancellation.

DeFalco never wrote Thor before Simonson's run that I remember. I've no idea where you're getting your misinformation. DeFalco could hardly be blamed for the cancellation of the Jurgens/Oeming series, because the first Thor series ended with #502 and stayed gone for a while before popping back up with #1. I can't really see how one writer could be blamed for the unpopularity of a character and the death of two series, neither of which he was writing at the time of cancellation.

Me, I loved DeFalco's Thor run. Still have to track down the only issue I'm missing from it. It was a fun throwback to the 60's, Frenz's art was gorgeous, and it gave us the character of Eric Masterson. Yeah, some of the writing was technically atrocious, but I thought it was great anyway.

This surprises me. I always thought - by virtue of the fact that there are more thinner lower case letters than upper case ones that they’d be able to fit in more text with mix case writing.

If you have g's and p's and j's and the like, dangling tails are going to cause some space issues. Capital letters all fall within the same basic dimensions.

There's ways around it, of course. Look at the lettering in Nextwave. That uses mixed-case and is fine.

Look, the world's tiniest violin is playing, just for you and your love of men in tights beating on each other.

I think what you mean is "Remember when superheroes fought supervillains, and that's all they did. Back in the good, old, one-dimensional days?"

If I want to watch superheroes fight, I can play a videogame. When I want a story, I'll go read a comic book.

...When you get down to it, the only notable thing about DeFalco's FF run was the art of Paul Ryan. It gave the book the "clean techno" look that the likes of Reed Richards and the Baxter Building need, and in many cases managed to catch the spirit of the old "Kirby Kozmik" that made FF such a fun read. As for his Thor run, the first one was so pedestrian that the only notable points were the introduction of Marvel's lamest villain ever, "Locus", and the "Crusader", who was a Christian Solder out to kill our favorite Thunder God because he was an "affront" to God/Yahweh/Roddenberry by his mere existence.

Bottom Line: People complain about Shooter's Secret Wars being nothing more than a half-baked "decompressed" rehash of his classic Korvac Saga, but when you compare it to DeFalco's runs on Thor and FF it actually comes out almost as a minor literary masterpiece. In fact, that Tom DeFalco was such a literary genius that it makes one wonder if he'd taught Chuckles Austen and Bruce Jones the tricks of the trade!