Comic Book Resources

Have they actually confirmed the entire cast somewhere online or in one of the books Marvel released this week? All I’ve seen so far are the solicitations and script excerpts that mention The Ghost, Ant-Man and Yelena Belova.

I’m more excited about the Ghost, personally (so long as it’s the Iron Man villain). He’s one of my favorite Marvel villains. Now if only Killer Shrike made the cut.

DD 150! Whooooo!

I still have that issue tucked away somewhere.

You’ve *got* to be kidding me.

I’m with Michael… Assuming that he’s thinking the same as me, and not being sarcastic…

Paladin or Venom… hmmm… tough choice…

Headsman or Swordsman… hmmm…

This sounds like recycling characters that haven’t been around for a while to ensure the copyright stays valid…

I like Paladin, but isn;t Headsman a Busiek-created villain? I tend to not like Busiek-created characters, his Avengers run scarred me, especially Triathlon. Plus I don’t really look forward to anything that reinforces the in-continuity status of Untold Tales of Spider-Man.

Um, what? I’d much rather see Paladin get some time in the spotlight than tiny-eyes Venom or Baron Zemo-lite. As for the Headsman, I personally loved Untold Tales, so despite the character being a total cipher I approve the pick. Can’t really imagine people who’ve read it dissing Untold Tales or the characters it spawned, because A) Busiek took care not to mess with established continuity one iota (unlike the First Class books) B) the book was entertaining and gripping (unlike Byrne’s Hidden Years book), all the more so because C) it was published during the Clone Saga, when good Spidey comics were as rare as pimped-out foil-covers were ubiquitous.

Besides, Scorcher & Batwing have made modern-day appearances and Bluebird’s gotten referenced, so I think Untold Tales’ in-continuity standing would remain regardless.

Finally, I think it’s pretty hilarious to say you don’t like Busiek-created characters in a thread speculating on new members of the *Thunderbolts* …

I think I’m just getting a bit tired of rotating casts…

You get used to one cast, start to appreciate the characters and the interactions between them, then whoosh!

New characters, new interactions, new direction…

I was really enjoying Ellis’s stuff, and I thought Gage was doing great work picking up from there…

What possible reason can one come up with to dislike Untold Tales of Spider-Man? I suppose it’s possible if someone hates Spider-Man in general…

Shite.. thought I closed off the italics.. Can anyone fix that?

Sorry

Diggle’s cast does look pretty spectacular.

It’s about time Paladin got a steady gig, and more Eric O’Grady is never a bad thing.

I am a bit bummed that, judging by the cover, they’re not using Frazer Irving’s excellent Ghost redesign, though. Alack.

http://comics.ign.com/articles/937/937052p1.html

He just did an interview with IGN yesterday where he confirms Black Widow (Yelena), the Ghost, Ant-Man (O’Grady), Headsman, and Paladin.

What possible reason can one come up with to dislike Untold Tales of Spider-Man? I suppose it’s possible if someone hates Spider-Man in general…

I don’t really mind it as a What If? type tale or some piece of optional continuity…I just am extremely reverent toward Lee/Ditko Spider-Man, I think it’s the peak pinnacle achievement of superhero comics. My reverence for it may be borderline unhealthy actually. So the idea of a whole in-continuity series dedicated to supplementing it is near sacrilege to me, kind of like touching up the Mona Lisa or a Rockwell painting. If you’re going to do it, it better be damn good. And it better not make any major changes. First I think the series got the look and voice of Lee/Ditko Spider-Man wrong (Lee/Ditko’s Spider-Man is a very specific character, somewhat surlier and abrasive than the Lee/Romita and later incarnations of Spider-Man, whereas the voice of Busiek’s Spider-Man seemed to use a Spider-man voice that drew heavily from later eras). Also, I think Busiek creates lame characters. If you are going to create villains that are supposed to be from the Ditko era, they better be up there with Ditko creations. Fireguy, generic astronauts and Headsman and others Busiek created simply weren’t that good to me, compared to a guy with a lightning-bolt starfish head. Now THAT is just awesome. And lastly, it tried to do too much of the type of retcon that they do with Wolverine, where they take past events and try to fill in the blanks that were not previously even blanks. Headsman was a henchman for Norman Osborn, Peter had a classmate named Sally who died and it traumatized him, etc.

Dan Slott wrote a Spider-man story that was set in the Lee/Ditko era in his Spidey/Human Torch book, but I think he did a much better job of capturing the voice of that era’s Spider-Man, and his story had no major retcons.

Paladin’s an awesome character with a cult following since Daredevil, but the Headsman?

I think the barrel’s bottom was well and truly scraped there.

Kind of like what Busiek did in Power Company. I’d like that to be collected: it’s probably better than the few who gave it a chance remember.

Wow, I can’t believe all the hate for what was the best Spidey title at the time. I’ve actually read them in continuity order (no life) and they sync up pretty well. The only one lacking was that Doc Strange one-shot. I just didn’t like it.

Whatever. Resurrect some more c-list characters and we might find one that truly interests me. Paladin (the appropriately dickish mercenery) and Headsman (who?) just don’t give me a pant-tent in the least.

Oh well. Better than Venom at any rate.

Thunderbolts could only have appealed to me with at least one Venom-level, semi-well-known property on the team. Putting the villain of one of Marvel’s bigger films at the top didn’t hurt. It was interesting to meet the other villains, and of course everyone knows Bullseye, but the book seems like Marvel’s Legion of Superheroes to me otherwise: you’re either really, really, really into these obscure characters, or you’re lost.