Comic Book Resources

Speaking of “Superman isn’t in the business of curing brain tumors”: http://www.politedissent.com/archives/5454

“Has there been a story where Bruce Wayne walks across Gotham?”

Wayne walked across Gotham with Honor Jackson in Batman RIP.

True enough. Sorry, I meant with a purpose ala Superman walking across America. Walking across Gotham to get a sense of the city, to see it from that basic human level — to get another perspective. That happens in Batman R.I.P., but not as purposefully.

Still, Superman isn’t in the business of curing brain tumors and never has been, lady. Maybe he should be, but blaming him is just stupid.

I sort of want the lady to be a plant by Luthor. That seems like a very Luthorish thing to do, and he has almost no chance of being caught.

Bruce Wayne also spent months undercover living a working-class life in the “City of Crime” storyline, and then there’s all his time as “Matches” Malone….

“It’s hard deciding what few books to bring with me to Winnipeg…”

I suggest you bring everything.
Between all the rain, too hot weather, we are quite BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING!

I pity you. I really do. And I LIVE here.

Indeed, Bendis really dropped the bar with noh-varr and shoe horned him into the main 616 universe. All for him to become “The Protector”, sheez how lame. And I generally like the guy.

I agree about Joe Casey’s Mr. Majestic. I actually wouldn’t mind if someone took that approach to Superman today. It had a great blend of Silver Agey pseudo-science fiction and poignant character moments integrated into plots that moved at hyperspeed. And the art was clean, expressive, and full of imagination. I already know a man can walk; I want to believe a man can push planets and hide the solar system from a galaxy-devouring entity from beyond.

Seems like Marvel is trying to cast Steve Rogers as the “Superman” of the Marvel Universe, which fits, given his “old fashioned” values and the admiration the other heroes have always shown for him. But just how long has he supposed to have been thawed-out these days? There comes a point where “man out of his time” becomes “crusty old fart who can’t accept the changing world.” If he has been involved in all the big events that the Illuminatti mini-series made modern canon, then he must have been living in the “present day” for at least ten years.

Marvel really missed their chance when they didn’t bring Steve back from the dead by rescuing him from the ice again and starting over with the WWII soldier in the present day.

And Civil War did come close to wrecking Steve’s character. Not because he quit, but because he started a war that had no good possible end. He never even seemed to consider what the end game would be. What was his stategery beyond hitting people? Was he going to over-throw the government? Put Tony and Hank in the Negative Zone prison? Start a Facebook page?

In other news: Can someone who has been reading Superman for the last couple of years catch me up? Or point me to a website that can?

Am I to understand that Superman can’t fly any more? Can he still leap tall buildings at a single bound? Have he and Lois split up? Is he just going to walk the earth? Meet people? Get in adventures?

Secret Warriors presents an interesting image when you read it at once. The only thing I can’t figure out is why the Zodiac member’s stations are also used as their passwords. Across organizations. That seems odd.

“I just liked Luke Cage standing up to him and not being wrong in doing so.”

You mean his whole “I didn’t fight to wind up working for the man!!!! (but I’ll see you over in Thunderbolts where I’m working for you…just don’t tell anyone)” thing?

feh.

I don’t consider non-Bendis Luke Cage stories necessarily canon at this point…

I think it would be more interesting to have J. Michael Straczynski walk across America instead of Superman. And while he’s gone, somebody else can write Superman.

The real question is – are you walking across Winnipeg?

If you’ve got six weeks…

Random Thought! I skimmed the prologue to “Grounded” and while it was pretty lame, I still like the idea of the story… some people want Superman hitting things, I like the introspective nature of the character, that willingness to examine himself and what he believes in.

When people mention “Grounded,” I keep thinking about the Image Comic of the same name from a couple years ago. That had Paul Azaceta art, so it wins.

Random Thought! I’m awesome at Tetris. Then again, is there anyone who had a Game Boy that isn’t?

Tetris is the best. It’s the only video game I still play with any regularity. I stumbled upon a web-based version a couple months ago, and, before I knew it, the day was over.

Random Thought! I want Ramon Bachs to work with Joe Casey on an offbeat superhero title.

Why would you wish Bachs on anyone? That’s just cruel, man.

Random Thought! Been rereading Secret Warriors over the past couple of days at random times. Man, the bigger picture is much more apparent when you read this book in chunks. You don’t necessarily know anything new, it just fits into a pattern… mostly surrounding the Zodiac Event.

I hope Secret Warriors is one of the big comic things you’re going to write about soon, since we’re at the halfway point in the saga.

Random Thought! I own all 14 issues of Casanova. I will be buying the Icon reprints. You should, too.

As good as those issues were (and, Jesus, were they good), I’ll wait for the trade on the reprints.

Random Thought! I want to write the story where Guardian walks across Canada to gain a new sense of purpose and to remind himself about why he does what he does.

Ha!

Random Thought! I also kind of want to see an issue of The Boys devoted to Hughie doing the same across Scotland. Okay, not really, but I think Ennis could make it work.

I wouldn’t put that past Ennis at all.

Random Thought! If you haven’t, go track down the Mr. Majestic series from 11 years ago by Joe Casey, Brian Holguin, Ed McGuiness, and Eric Canete. You’ll like it.

Has it really been 11 years? Holy crap. I got the trade a while ago, but that only includes the McGuinness issues. I still need to hunt down the Canete issues.

Marvel’s been trying to take all my money at once, too. I can’t afford four expensive Avengers titles, plus Hawkeye & Mockingbird, and the Black Cat, and the stuff I usually buy. I was really hoping to check out this Young Allies-thing, because it has Arana in it, but now I don’t know if I’ll be able to. And now you mention something called Scarlet? Is that about the Scarlet Witch?!? I may have to start knocking over liquor stores soon.

Have a very merry Canada Day! Is that like the Fourth of July, with picnics and fireworks and stuff? Or do you celebrate by reading old Alpha Flights all day? Do you read them in both English and French?

Cheers. Yeah, it’s similar to July 4th, but a little more low key in that way that Canadians are just more low key than Americans when it comes to patriotism. But there are fireworks, parades, etc. Here in Windsor, there are big fireworks sometime around July 1st/4th done with Detroit to celebrate both holidays.

Random Thought! Lois Lane and Clark Kent are the worst couple ever.

What’s that based on?

Not many comics I’ve read.

Random Thought! While everyone was talking about DC’s digital stuff last week, I was reading my paper comics. I like paper comics.
Random Thought! I’ve had to use digital comics for a while now with reviews and I don’t like them. Obviously that’s partly the hardware, but I simply prefer paper to screen. Stupid bias, but that’s me.

I’m the same.
Or was until I tried the apps on ipad.
There’s a lot of trades on my shelves I enjoyed reading, but may not get around to re-reading.
And a lot of old classics I’d love to read, but would otherwise only be able to afford in Essential/Showcase.
As a space saver, and as a cheap way to read old books at top quality, Digital is a great tool for a comic fan.

I read Lunar Park in a day, but it took a bit more time than Imperial Bedrooms. Nah, the new one is more like Less Than Zero in length.

I’m still impressed by that – particularly with Luna Park – that mofo sagged big time in the middle.
I had to do small bursts with that one.

What’s your Tetris record (BE HONEST).

Mine is 282 lines and over 470,000 points. I think I spent more time on Tetris than I did on my entire six years at university.

Chad have you ever been to Ottawa for Canada Day?
People go absolutely bonkers here.

Tetris rules. I played a marathon game of the new tetris for N64 where I got over 5,000 lines… thats gotta be some kind of record.

And don’t you mean Man-Thing on Luke Cage’s team? or did I miss something?

At some point, once I have it all, I want to read all of Morrison’s DC work in order to see all the threads moving through it.
On the subject of Noh-Varr, yes he has changed, but it was in response to things happening in his life. First he was trying to continue his power grab, then his time as a Dark Avenger made him doubt his methods, and finally he got back into contact with the Supreme Intelligence who set him on a new path. I can get not liking the direction (I’m not sure about it myself), but it wasn’t a random change in that issue. But yes, JRJr draws him terribly. He’s really been phoning it in lately. The only stuff he does that isn’t eye bleedingly bad right now is his Spider-Man stuff, and that’s nowhere near as good as his previous work with the character.
Also, not everyone who owned a Gameboy was amazing at Tetris. I for one am absolutely mediocre.

@Oirectine: He means New Avengers, not T-Bolts. Cage is leading two teams now.

I have not read any post-Secret Invasion issues featuring Noh-Varr, but I don’t like what I’m hearing.

Is it just me or would it be incredibly easy to adapt “Marvel Boy” into a movie? It could be as crude as you want it and still be good. Even with, like, Megan Fox as Oubliette and Zach Snyder directing, I don’t see where it could go wrong.

And now you mention something called Scarlet? Is that about the Scarlet Witch?!?

No, fortunately. Given a choice of currently active comics writers, Bendis would be one of the worst possible choices for a Scarlet Witch story.

As it is, he’s one of the worst possible choices for a “heroic” AVENGERS series because he apparently has no idea of how to handle subject matter that’s even vaguely scientific. In AVENGERS #2, Bendis has Stark talk about time, how the time stream is broken, and since time isn’t linear — but that’s absurd. Time is linear. It flows in one direction only, in the absence of artificial manipulation, and it doesn’t start, stop, start, stop, start. For samples of recent research on the topic, see http://www.sciencenews.org/arrowoftime/

Scientific illiteracy was one of Bendis’s major weaknesses in his pre-AVENGERS material; if the plot in this AVENGERS arc is indicative, that illiteracy could make his stories practically unreadable. He might also recall that there were Avengers stories before he came on the scene. Instead of people worrying that Wonder Man is going “insane” like his Scarlet Witch and the Sentry did, somebody should consider the possibility of manipulation.

SRS

@ SRS …as a Bendis fan and an Avengers fan I couldn’t agree with you more. Some of the scientific issues he has tried to use in Avengers have totally crashed and burned….for instance remember that “powerless” arc? I still waiting on a response on how the power bomb graphically affected Ronin when Clint doesn’t have powers?

I cringed when Noh-Varr was included in the “real” Marvel Universe for just this reason. No one knows what to do with him… Better to bring back Genis from being scattered to the cosmic ether than this…

I hope Canadians are enjoying their day…

I think Thom Zahler should look at JMS for stealing his story idea about Superman and guilt about curing the incurable….also Grant Morrison and Jim Valentino and Peter David and….I can’t believe this but this is such a tired plot device…especially in DC where S.T.A.R. Labs and the Purple Ray seemingly exist in EVERY major city….

How hasn’t Lois cheated on Clark yet after seeing him in action with some of the most beautiful Heroines on the planet? The power of true love…..lol But seriously does anyone know where Ron Troupe is at least with all the Lana Lang mess happening during New Krypton/War of Supermen?

Congrats on the anniversary and have fun on the trip…..when you run into Alpha Flight while you adventuring, tell Snowbird that she still has a fan here in NYC!